Technical efficiency of primary healthcare in Minas Gerais municipalities (2015-2019)

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the primary healthcare efficiency of the Minas Gerais municipalities, 2015-2019. For this, we constructed efficiency indexes using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method. Afterwards, we estimated different types of Quantile regression models to analyze the impact of environmental variables on health efficiency. The results revealed that 38.5% of the sample was efficient. Furthermore, it was shown that health efficiency might be affected by the presence of health cores in regions, the proportion of illiterate and elderly people, the relative number of people with access to sanitary sewage, and the availability of sports courts. On the other hand, health efficiency was found to be more closely associated with local health management. In conclusion, health policies should focus on improving prenatal care for women, vaccine coverage, and health family protection programs, especially in the most populous and developed regions of the state.