[Use of telehealth as a tool to support continuing health educationUtilización del Programa de Telesalud en el estado de Maranhão como herramienta para apoyar la educación permanente sobre la salud].

Objective: To assess the usage of services provided by the State of Maranhão Telehealth Program, Brazil, as a tool to support continuing health education for primary care workers.

Method: This quantitative, descriptive study used data from the Brazilian National Telehealth Platform for the years 2015 and 2016. To assess teleconsultations requested by municipalities and health care units in the state of Maranhão, the monthly system usage rate and the mean monthly request rate per municipality and primary health care unit were calculated.

[Evaluating productivity targets achievement in Dental Specialty Centers from Maranhão State, Brazil, 2011].

Objective: to evaluate productivity targets achievement (PTA) in Dental Specialty Centers (DSCs) from Maranhão State, Brazil.

Methods: this was an ecologic study using secondary data; an indicator for PTA was created for each subgroup of procedures.

Results: 25 DSCs were evaluated; the PTA was higher for basic procedures (n=19), followed by endodontics (n=11), oral surgery (n=9) and periodontics (n=8); the best results were obtained at DSCs type II; higher PTA was associated with financial anticipation (basic procedures) and higher Human Development Index, life expectancy and social exclusion rate (endodontics); lower PTA was associated with larger population (endodontics/oral surgery), adherence to the Pact for Health (periodontics/endodontics), larger number of specialties (periodontics) and bigger DSC (oral surgery).

[Inadequacy of the content of prenatal care and associated factors in a cohort in the northeast of Brazil].

The scope of this study was to analyze the content of prenatal care in São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil, and the factors associated with its inadequacy. A cross-sectional study was conducted based on data from the birth cohort of São Luís in 2010. The content of prenatal care was defined as inadequate when it did not meet the criteria of the Program for Humanization of Prenatal and Delivery Care, which establishes early initiation of prenatal care, minimum number of medical consultations, basic laboratory tests, tetanus vaccination and obstetric procedures.

Inadequate prenatal care utilization and associated factors in São Luís, Brazil.

Background: Over the last decades there has been a reduction of social inequalities in Brazil, as well as a strong expansion of health services, including prenatal care. The objective of the present study was to estimate the rate of inadequate prenatal care utilization and its associated factors in São Luís, Brazil, in 2010 and to determine whether there was a reduction of inequity in prenatal care use by comparing the present data to those obtained from a previous cohort started in 1997/98.

Methods: Data from the BRISA (Brazilian birth cohort studies of Ribeirão Preto and São Luís) population-based cohort, which started in 2010 (5067 women), were used.

[Evaluation of the family focus and community orientation in the Family Health Strategy].

The Family Health Strategy should be focused on the family unit and constructed operationally within the community sphere. The research assessed the family focus and community orientation as attributes of Primary Health Care, comparing if the responses differed among users, professionals and managers. It is an evaluative study of a population-based quantitative approach conducted between January 2010 and March 2011 in São Luís in the state of Maranhão.

[Access to and use of the services of the family health strategy from the perspective of managers, professionals and users].

Questionnaires adapted to the Brazilian reality (Primary Care Assessment Tool) to evaluate access to and use of services were distributed to 30 managers, 80 professionals and a random sample of 882 Family Health Strategy (FHS) users in São Luís in the state of Maranhão. The differences between the evaluations of managers, professionals and users were identified by the Kruskal-Wallis test and Dunn's post test. Users faced difficulties in access to and use of the services, which were also considered unsatisfactory by managers and professionals.

[Prevalence and factors associated to malnutrition and excess weight among under five year-olds in the six largest cities of Maranhão].

Prevalences of malnutrition and overweight among children under five years and its association with socioeconomic, demographic and health indicators were estimated for the six largest municipalities of Maranhão, in 2006/2007. By means of a household survey, a sample of 1214 children under five years of age was randomly selected. Two-stage cluster sampling was used, representing the six municipalities of Maranhão with over one hundred thousand inhabitants.

[Quality of abortion care in the Unified Health System of Northeastern Brazil: what do women say?].

Abortion is a serious health problem in Brazil and complications can be avoided by adequate and timely care. The article evaluates the quality of care given to women admitted for abortion in hospitals operated by the Unified Health System, in Salvador, Recife and São Luis, the benchmarks being Ministry of Health norms and user satisfaction. The article analyzes 2804 women admitted to hospital for abortion complications in 19 hospitals, between August and December 2010.

Risk factors for preterm births in São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil.

Preterm birth continues to be one of the main causes of neonatal morbidity and mortality. The objective of the present study was to identify risk factors for preterm birth in São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil. The sample consisted of hospital births at 10 public and private hospitals from March 1, 1997 to February 28, 1998.