Health Booklet Developmental Milestones

[Michelle Benitone]

INurse. Resident in Neonatal Health. Universidade So Francisco. BraganaPaulista, So Paulo, Brazil. E-mail: bner.a...@gmail.com

II Nurse. Santa Casa de Passos. Passos, Minas Gerais, Brazil. E-mail:luzinha...@gmail.com

IIINurse. E-mail: aliceli...@gmail.com

IV Statistician. Associate Professor of the Institute of Exacta Sciences atUniversidade Federal de Alfenas.Minas Gerais, Brazil. E-mail: deni...@gmail.com

V Nurse. Assistant Professor at Nursing School of Universidade Federal deAlfenas, Minas Gerais, Brazil. E-mail: denis...@gmail.com

Objective: to examine the record of children's growth and development in the first year of life, in the health booklet. Methods: in this quantitative, cross-sectional, descriptive study, documentary analysis was carried out with 229 health booklets collected at 10 Municipal Early Childhood Education Centers in a municipality in south Minas Gerais, from January to June 2015, using a purpose-designed form. The study was approvedby the research ethics committee (CAAE No. 36321314.6.0000.5142). Results: the rate of data recorded in the booklets was low. Only 3 (1.3%) were fully completed as regards development, and 171 (74.7%) had no child development data entered. Conclusion: the data recorded in the booklets by health personnel on the process of children's growth and development was found to be insufficient. Shortcomings in completion impair communication between health personnel and relatives in comprehensive child care.

The Child Health Booklet (CHB) is an essential tool to monitor the health of children, in which the most significant data and events for the child care follow up are recorded1. This document also enables a dialogue between the multidisciplinary health team, and is recognized as a facilitator between parents and professionals communication2.

The CHB includes the child identification data, obstetric history, birth, the process of growth and development, feeding, the use of iron and vitamin A supplementation, oral, hearing and visual health, vaccines, in addition to the record of clinical complications3.

These records should be made by professionals who are responsible for the child care in health care services. The appropriate management of this instrument must be particularly executed in the maternity hospitals and primary care services; such work represents a challenge for the health team, since much of the information is produced in this places4.

The activities carried out on graduation courses, during the practice of the child health subject, enabled to check that many data in the CHB was not filled. Therefore, this study was performed in view of the importance of the CHB to monitor the process of growth and development in the context of childhood, which provides a health surveillance in this age group that presents a higher risk of mortality2.

The primary health care action about the monitoring of growth and development, is the central axis of child care. Surveillance in the prevention of diseases in the context of childhood makes it possible to identify children at greater risk of morbidity and mortality and promote proper control of growth and development of this population group. In Brazil, in recent decades, there is a decrease in infant mortality, touted as one of the millennium goals in the commitment to provide quality of life for this age segment 5-7.

So, in the integral attention to child health, the Ministry of health (MH) proposes 13 lines of care as assistance axes to adapt the operation of the service and the network of children health care5. Almost all actions described in these care lines are included in the CHB and its record enables healthcare professionals and family accompany the child's growth and development process.

The CHB is aimed at every citizen born in the Brazilian territory, and it was established in 2005 to replace the Child's Card, which contained a limited number of information such as identification, weight versus height chart and the child's vaccination card. Since the year 2007 (in its third version), the CHB was incremented with guidelines for health promotion and disease prevention and aggravations3-5,8.

To fulfil its role as an instrument of communication, surveillance, education and child health promotion, there must be a dialogue with the family about these records to fill the CHB completely and correctly. The proper use of this instrument by health professionals enables the family to value it, and makes the CHB a relevant document that guides medical appointments and care actions8.

At the same time, the quality of the CHB information can reveal the condition of the service provided to the children4. The family receives the booklet soon after the child's birth in the maternity ward,and, therefore, must always carry it when using the health care service5.

In this regard, health professionals are responsible of the proper management of this instrument as a resource that promotes dialogue with the family and contributes to the decrease of the morbidity and mortality rates in the first year of life.

This is a study of quantitative, descriptive, transversal methodological approach and documentary analysis9, held in 10 Municipal Child Education Centers (MCEC) in the city of Alfenas-MG. Data were collected in February 2015. The sample of 229 children was calculated considering an acceptable error of 5.97 percentage points and a confidence interval of 95% (CI95%) on a population of 1503 child enrolled in 10 MCEC. After the sample calculation, data collection was distributed in 10 MCEC, respecting the percentage of the sample and the number of children enrolled in each educational institution.

In the CHB, we evaluated the data relating to the first-year records, taking into consideration that for monitoring the process of growth and development, the Ministry of health recommends seven medical consultations in the first year of life3. We considered as exclusion criteria, the CHB that were not brought to the MCEC by parents/guardians, after three requirements.

The researchers developed an instrument that served as a basis to verify whether the CHB was filled, contemplating the variables of the study: anthropometric variables (cephalic perimeter x age, weight x age, height x age, BMI x age) and behavioral variables about development (posture, movements, reactions, communication).

The study authors attended the MCEC to request authorization to carry out the research. After, each parent or guardian of children enrolled in the respective MCEC received an invitation, explaining the goals of the study. Those who agreed to participate in the research brought the CHB for data collection. They were arranged in a Microsoft Excel 2013 spreadsheet and analyzed by statistical program Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SSPS20).

We complied with the ethical and legal principles in research with humans, according to the resolution No. 466/1210. The data collection occurred with the signature of an informed consent by the parents/guardians, allowing access to CHB. The research project has been approved by the Research Ethics Committee (CEP) at the Federal University of Alfenas (UNIFAL -MG) under the opinion number 869,480.

Growth is a dynamic and continuous process expressed by the increase in body size. It is considered one of the best indicators of the child health, it suffers direct influence of intrinsic (genetic) and extrinsic (environmental) factors as well as food, health, hygiene, housing and sanitation conditions, and the general care of the child1. The data relating to child growth curves - cephalic perimeter x age; weight x age; height x age; body mass index (BMI) x age - are presented in Table 1.

Growth monitoring aims to the promotion and protection of the child to prevent deviations of growth could endanger the child current health and future quality of life11. The best method of child growth monitoring is the periodic record of weight, height and BMI of the child in the CHB12.

A study carried out in Belo Horizonte with children followed up at the unified health system (SUS), found the CHB filling unsatisfactory, because only 15.5% and 59.4% of children had their cephalic perimeter measured and weight x age registered respectively4.

The cephalic perimeter assessment should be undertaken as a priority in the first year of life, being a measure that offers slight variation for any age group, among gender, ethnic and population groups13.

Weight and height assessment should be periodic since weight gain allows the assessment of individual progress to check higher risk of morbidity and mortality, signaling early a frame of malnutrition or overweight/obesity,clinical pictures that significantly influence the child height development1.

We point out that data of BMI x age were less registered in CHB, in comparison with the others. The inclusion of the IMC as an evaluation parameter enables better monitoring of children in relative weight x length (under 2 years) or weight x height (over 2 years). Such parameter helps professionals identify children who were malnourished in a given period and had their height development jeopardized, as well as children with overweight and short height. In comparison, the weight x age and length x age charts, separately, only show whether the child has, individually, their weight and/or length jeopardized1.

In the CHB there is a reference to fill in the IMC, a table to perform the cross between length/height and weight. The value found at the intersection of the data reflects the value of BMI. However, in practical use, these tables require considerable time to be completed, which can explain why little professionals do it.

A study conducted by the World Health Organization between 1998 and 2002, involving 178 countries, showed that in 80% of them, health workers reported difficulties using the instruments for monitoring children's growth. Problems of conceptual and operational nature were evident, varying from understanding the growth curves to the lack of adequate facilities to measure child growth14.

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