Risco para um exame citopatológico do colo do útero alterado e letramento funcional em saúde em mulheres assistidas pela estratégia de saúde da família

Abstract

Identifying women who are more likely to present an abnormal Paa test is important to organize health services, direct the Pap smear, and intensify health education activities for women with greater vulnerability. In this context, Functional Health Literacy (FHL), understood as the capacity to obtain, process and understand basic health information and services, necessary to make health-related decisions, is determinant for behavioral change and adoption of health habits. Life. OBJECTIVES: To estimate the prevalence and the factors associated with the high risk of presenting an altered Pap test; To estimate the prevalence and factors associated with Functional Health Literacy. METHODOLOGY: An observational epidemiological study of a cross-sectional design, carried out in two Units of Primary Health Care, from December 2015 to October 2016. The sample originated from a Cohort of 776 women. For the data collection, an electronic form was used, which approached socio-demographic factors, social support, self-assessment of health status, lifestyle, morbidity, women's health and sexual behavior. Functional Health Literacy was measured by BTOFHLA and the risk of having an altered Pap test according to a criterion developed and validated by Vukovic et al. Statistical analyzes were performed by STATA® software, using the Pearson Chi-square test and the Poisson regression, calculating the Prevalence Ratio (PR), with robust variance and confidence interval (CI) of 95,0%. RESULTS: The final sample consisted of 479 women and B-TOFHLA was applied in 439 women. The high risk for an altered Pap smear was identified in 30% of the women evaluated, and was associated with high age, low income, negative perception about health status, tobacco use and alcohol abuse. Low Functional Health Literacy was identified in 53.5% of the sample, and was associated with the age of over 40, the level of education lower than full secondary education, low income and self-declaration of brown or black color. CONCLUSIONS: Young, lowincome women with negative perceptions of their own health who used tobacco or alcohol were more likely to have abnormal Pap test. Older, low-educated, low-income, and brown or black women were more prone to low Functional Health Literacy. The findings emphasize the need to acquire the discourses used by health professionals at the level of patient understanding and reinforce the multifactorial nature of the diseases. In addition, it highlights the need to expand public health policies aimed at raising Functional Health Literacy levels of the population surveyed and reducing health inequities.