Longitudinality in Primary Health Care: a comparison between care models.

OBJECTIVE: to evaluate the attribute longitudinality in different models of assistance in Primary Health Care and observe its association with demographic, socioeconomic and health care characteristics.

METHOD: a cross-sectional study, carried out in 2015 with 1076 adult users of primary care services in the 32 cities of the 4th Regional Health Care Core of Rio Grande do Sul State. The Primary Care Assessment Tool was used with definition of low (<6.6) or high (≥6.6) score for longitudinality. The association with independent variables was observed through the Poisson regression.

RESULTS: the attribute was better assessed in the Family Health Strategy and associate with age, housing health region and care model.

CONCLUSION: the study points out the Family Health Strategy as a promoter of longitudinal care, and so, it suggests the expansion of this assistance model coverage for quality improvement in health care.