2025, Vol. 7, Issue 9, Part B

Objective: This study aimed to understand the social and health conditions of mothers of children followed up at the childcare clinic in a basic health unit in a municipality in the interior of Brazil.

Method: This is a cross-sectional, observational and descriptive study carried out through interviews with mothers of children attended at childcare outpatient clinic of a basic health unit located in the city of Ribeirão Preto, state of São Paulo, during the period of one year. A specific questionnaire was used for the study containing questions about their social conditions (age, marital status, education, out- of-home work) and health (number of children, prenatal follow-up, disease during prenatal care, breastfeeding time, referred morbidity, continuous drug use, tabagism, occasional or regular physical activity and hours of sleep).

Results: 185 mothers were interviewed predominating the age group from 30 to 39 years old, married, with complete high school, with up to 3 children and do not perform professional activities away from home. Most (98.4%) preformed prenatal care, are non-smoker (90.3%), don’t consume alcohol (80.5%), don’t practice physical activity (78.4%) and sleep less than six hours at night (65.4%). The most frequent referred diseases were hypothyroidism (4.2%), anemia (2.2%), depression (2.2%), hypertension (2.2%) and insomnia (2.2%). Regular use of medicines was referred by 73 (38.6%) participants, and the most common were contraceptives (9.5%), antidepressants (8.4%), iron (7.4%), vitamins (4.2%), thyroid hormone (3.1%) and antihypertensive (2.6%).

Conclusion: The results of this study should be taken into account by health professionals when monitoring children in child welfare programs, as healthier mothers will certainly be able to provide more appropriate care for their children. Identifying physical and social problems in mothers and referring them for necessary care should be part of all child welfare program care.