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ABSTRACT Objective: To analyze characteristics of the home visit (HV) in Brazil, 2012 and 2017. Methods: Ecological study, with panel data whose units of analysis were the Primary Health Care teams in Brazil, participants of the 1st and 3rd cycles of the Program to Improve Access and Quality of Primary Care of the Unified Health System. Descriptive, inferential and spatial analyzes (alpha=5%) were performed. Results: There was an increase in the proportion of teams that carried out home visits at a frequency defined based on risk and vulnerability analysis and actively searched for people with respiratory symptoms and women with delayed and altered cytopathological examination. In the heat maps, the Northeast, Southeast and South regions had a higher concentration of teams that carried out the HV and carried out an active search. Conclusion: The maintenance and qualification of HVs must be a priority in Brazil, since there are few countries in the world with such capillarity of health services, reaching the homes of millions of people.

ObjectiveCompared indicators of potential access to oral health services sought in two cycles of the Program for Improvement of Access and Quality of Primary Care (PMAQ-AB), verifying whether the program generated changes in access to oral health services.MethodsTransitional analysis of latent classes was used to analyze two cross-sections of the external evaluation of the PMAQ-AB (Cycle I: 2011-2012 and Cycle II: 2013-2014), identifying completeness classes for a structure and work process related to oral health. Consider three indicators of structure (presence of a dental surgeon, existence of a dental office and operating at minimum hours) and five of the work process (scheduling every day of the week, home visits, basic dental procedures, scheduling for spontaneous demand and continuation of treatment). Choropleth maps and hotspots were made.ResultsThe proportion of elements that had one or more dentist (CD), dental office and operated at minimum hours varied from 65.56% to 67.13 between the two cycles of the PMAQ-AB. The number of teams that made appointments every day of the week increased 8.7% and those that made home visits varied from 44.51% to 52.88%. The reduction in the number of teams that reported guaranteeing the agenda for accommodating spontaneous demand, varying from 62.41% to 60.11% and in the continuity of treatment, varying from 63.41% to 61.11%. For the structure of health requirements, the predominant completeness profile was "Best completeness" in both cycles, comprising 71.0% of the sets at time 1 and 67.0% at time 2. The proportion of teams with "Best completeness" increased by 89.1%, the one with "Worst completeness" increased by 20%, while those with "Average completeness" decreased by 66.3%.ConclusionWe identified positive changes in the indicators of potential access to oral health services, expanding the users' ability to use them. However, some access attributes remain unsatisfactory, with organizational barriers persisting.

Abstract Background Brazilian Primary Care Facilities (PCF) provide primary care and must offer dental services for diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases. According to a logic of promoting equity, PCF should be better structured in less developed places and with higher need for oral health services. Objective To analyze the structure of dental caries services in the capitals of the Brazilian Federative Units and identify whether socioeconomic factors and caries (need) are predictors of the oral health services structure. Methods This is an ecological study with variables retrieved from different secondary databases, clustered for the level of the federative capitals. Descriptive thematic maps were prepared, and structural equations were analyzed to identify oral health service structure’s predictors (Alpha = 5%). Four models with different outcomes related to dental caries treatment were tested: 1) % of PCF with a fully equipped office; 2) % of PCF with sufficient instruments, and 3) % of PCF with sufficient supplies; 4) % of PCF with total structure. Results 21.6% of the PCF of the Brazilian capitals had a fully equipped office; 46.9% had sufficient instruments, and 30.0% had sufficient supplies for caries prevention and treatment. The four models evidenced proper fit indexes. A correlation between socioeconomic factors and the structure of oral health services was only noted in model 3. The worse the socioeconomic conditions, the lower the availability of dental supplies (standard factor loading: 0.92, P = 0.012). Estimates of total, direct and indirect effects showed that dental caries experience observed in the Brazilian population by SB-Brasil in 2010 did not affect the outcomes investigated. Conclusion Material resources are not equitably distributed according to the socioeconomic conditions and oral health needs of the population of the Brazilian capitals, thus contributing to persistent oral health inequities in the country.