Oral Health Work Process: Disparity Between Teams In Brazil, 2014

Objective: To compare Modality I and Modality II Oral Health Teams (OHT) regarding work process performance and differences between Brazilian regions. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study with OHTs that took part in the National Program for Primary Health Care Access and Quality Improvement (2013-2014). Latent Class Analysis identified OHT subgroups according to work process (action planning. health promotion actions and comprehensive health care) performance (consolidated, developing or incipient). MIT modalities were compared, resulting in an Index of Disparity. Results: After evaluating 15,886 OHTs, Modality II OHTs were found to have a higher percentage of consolidated work processes in the Southeast (67.8%-94.6%) and Southern (54.8%-93.0%) regions. Disparity in the consolidated work process was greater among Modality II OHTs (6.3-26.5) compared to Modality I OHTs (3.9-18.4). Conclusion: Modality II OHTS have the potential for better performance regarding the work process. but with regional disparities.