This study aims to evaluate the access to medicines in primary care from the users’ insights. This is a cross-sectional study with 692 primary care users interviewed, in Blumenau, Santa Catarina, 2010. We studied variables that represent some dimensions of access regarding the two primary care modes. Associations were tested using Chi- square test and Student t-test. Most were female (78%), with a mean age of 43.3 years and took on average 2.6 drugs. Seventy five percent (75%) had access to medicines. The average waiting time was 3 minutes and dispensing time was 2 minutes. Users assisted by Family Health Strategy were older (26.8% vs. 18.5%, p < 0.0001), with lower education (74.6 vs. 60.9, p < 0.01), took more drugs on average (3.0 vs. 2.2, p < 0.0001), stored less medicines at home (37,2% vs 63,5%, p < 0.0001) compared to those in the General Ambulatory. However, they received less information on how to get non-available medicines (56,9% vs 90,1%, p < 0.0001), but more information about possible drug interactions (13.6% vs. 6.6%, p < 0.005) and adverse drugs reactions (23.5% vs. 11.9%, p < 0.0001). The evaluation of medicines access may provide support to improve professional practices in different types of primary care.
Keywords:
health services accessibility; drug utilization; good dispensing practices; pharmaceutical services