OBJECTIVE: to evaluate the prevalence and factors associated with admission to pediatric hospital for conditions amenable to primary care. METHODS: an investigation was carried out for the duration of one year, with a representative sample of children admitted to hospital in a municipality in thenorth of the Brazilian State of Minas Gerais. Pediatric wards were visited once a week on different days. Demographic, socio-economic and health variables were studied. Conditions amenable to primary care were established using the official report published by the Brazilian Ministry of Health. The Poisson regression was used to evaluate the set of variables associated with admission to hospital for conditions amenable to primary care. RESULTS: 365 families were interviewed and the prevalence of admission to hospital for conditions amenable to primary care was 41.4% (n=151). Thefinal model revealed that, when taken together, the variables that continued to be associated in a statistically significant fashion with admissions to hospital for conditions amenable to primary care were: living in a Family Health Strategy area (PR=1.19;CI95%=1.039-1.61) and being aged under two years(PR=1.42; CI95%=1.35-1.51). CONCLUSION: the prevalence observed is similar to that found by other studies and highlights the need to improve out patient care for the age group covered by this study.
Hospitalization; Child health (Public Health); Primary health care
