Revista Brasileira de Saúde Materno Infantil (May 2023)

Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mother owl program of the VII health region of Pernambuco

  • Diana Loyce Monteiro,
  • Juliana Fernandes,
  • Etiene Oliveira da Silva Fittipaldi

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1590/1806-9304202300000136-en
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 23

Abstract

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Resumo Objectives: to analyze the impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on the Mother Owl Program of the VII Health Region of Pernambuco. Methods: descriptive, cross-sectional and quantitative study, carried out at the VII Regional Health Management, in Salgueiro-PE. Data were collected from the Mother Owl Information System, from August to November 2021, being related to women and children registered from 2019 to March 2021. Adopting a time frame for before and during the pandemic, the Student’s t and chi-square tests in the analysis of continuous and categorical variables, respectively. Results: data from 581 women and 412 children were analyzed. Before the pandemic, there was a higher average number of prenatal consultations (p<0.001) and greater completeness in the children’s race data (p<0.001). During the pandemic, there was a lower frequency of breastfeeding in the first hour of life (p<0.001) and of filling in the data regarding maternal education (p<0.001). In addition, no more than 7 childcare consultations were performed (p<0.001). Conclusions: the assistance of women and children was impacted, mainly with the drop in prenatal and childcare consultations, showing that COVID-19 had a negative impact on the health of people monitored by the Program and on the quality of information inserted in the system.

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