title: Potential access to primary health care: what does the National Program for Access and Quality Improvement data show?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  to analyze the influence of contextual indicators on the performance of municipalities regarding potential access to primary health care in Brazil and to discuss the contribution from nurses working on this access.
  
  
  METHODS
  a multicenter descriptive study based on secondary data from External Evaluation of the National Program for Access and Quality Improvement in Primary Care, with the participation of 17,202 primary care teams. The chi-square test of proportions was used to verify differences between the municipalities stratified based on size of the coverage area, supply, coordination, and integration; when necessary, the chi-square test with Yates correction or Fisher's exact test were employed. For the population variable, the Kruskal-Wallis test was used.
  
  
  RESULTS
  the majority of participants were nurses (n=15.876; 92,3%). Statistically significant differences were observed between the municipalities in terms of territory (p=0.0000), availability (p=0.0000), coordination of care (p=0.0000), integration (p=0.0000) and supply (p=0.0000), verifying that the municipalities that make up area 6 tend to have better performance in these dimensions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  areas 4,5 and 6 performed better in every analyzed dimension, and the nurse had a leading role in the potential to access primary health care in Brazil.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.
authors.forename: Severina Alice da Costa
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Uchôa
authors.affiliation: Escola de Enfermagem de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Ricardo Alexandre
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Arcêncio
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.
authors.forename: Inês Santos Estevinho
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Fronteira
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Enfermagem, Universidade Estadual da Paraíba, Campina Grande, PB, Brazil.
authors.forename: Ardigleusa Alves
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Coêlho
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Enfermagem, Universidade Estadual da Paraíba, Campina Grande, PB, Brazil.
authors.forename: Claudia Santos
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Martiniano
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Enfermagem, Centro Universitário FACEX, Natal, RN, Brazil.
authors.forename: Isabel Cristina Araújo
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Brandão
authors.affiliation: Escola de Enfermagem de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Mellina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yamamura
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Odontologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, RN, Brazil.
authors.forename: Renata Melo
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Maroto
mesh_terms: D001938:Brazil; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002947:Cities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D024802:Nurse's Role; D011320:Primary Health Care; D058996:Quality Improvement