Acesso à saúde de pessoas com tuberculose: percepções de usuários de uma unidade básica de saúde

Abstract

This study aims to understand the perceptions of users about first contact care for people with tuberculosis in the actions offered by a Basic Health Unit in Caicó/RN. This is a descriptive-analytical, exploratory, qualitative study carried out with people affected by tuberculosis. Subjects belonging to the catchment area of the Santa Costa Basic Health Unit and who had been treated or were being treated for tuberculosis were eligible to take part in the study. Users with cognitive and/or intellectual impairment that made it impossible to conduct the interview, minors and users with HIV-tuberculosis co-infection were excluded. Taking the criteria into account, 13 people were able to take part in the research, but seven individuals completed the interviews, because two citizens declined the invitation to take part in the study, as well as four others who were in a vulnerable state of health. Data collection took place in April and May 2023, and was made possible by the construction of an interview script with open-ended questions. The study corpus was processed using IRaMuTeQ software, while the method used for data analysis was thematic analysis. The seven study subjects were diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis, six of whom were diagnosed in SUS services and one in a private establishment; of those interviewed, one was undergoing treatment at the time of data collection. The processing carried out by the software resulted in the formation of a word cloud, as well as the grouping of the words most present in the transcribed speeches, following lexical patterns and percentages of representativeness. Based on the objective of the study, three categories of discussion were selected, called: the gateways to the Unified Health System for the diagnosis of tuberculosis, services mobilized in the itinerary of people with tuberculosis, and home care for people undergoing tuberculosis treatment. The individuals in the study gave a satisfactory assessment of home care for people with tuberculosis, with emphasis on the work of community health workers. Despite this, some of the interviewees encountered accessibility barriers related to socioeconomic, cultural and organizational aspects.