Performance evaluation of health promotion actions taken by community health workers

Based on the analyzes that were systematically performed on the work of Community Health Agents (ACS), the Ministry of Health constructed a training program for these professionals in which the skills that should compose their profile were defined, health promotion was one of them. The objective of this research was to describe and quantitatively represent health promotion actions proposed by the Ministry of Health. This is a quantitative research concerning the Collegiate Regional Manager (CGR) Alto Capivari in the Presidente Prudente-SP region. The subjects of this study were 97 ACS working in the 17 teams of Family Health of the CGR. Data were collected through a Likert form that allows verifying the occurrence of health promotion actions. The more frequently performed health promotion actions were the ones aimed at the development of self-care, injury prevention, and problems identification, and the less frequently performed actions were the ones of social participation and intersectoral approach. However, among the operationalization challenges of health promotion actions which were more emancipatory by ACS, the attribution of actions different from those proposed by the Ministry of Health, a number of families beyond the recommended and little offer of training for ACS were verified. ACS have potential and perform important actions to promote health, yet this strategy should be prioritized by social and health public policies since its development can positively impact health indicators.