Analysis of the oral health policies evaluation in Brazil scientific production

Abstract

A bibliometric study of publications was conducted with the aim of analyzing the scientific productions on oral health public policies evaluation in Brazil between January 1980 and May 2015 in the Scielo and BVS/ Bireme/ PAHO databases was carried out. Forty five papers in Portuguese and/or English were included, those in duplicate and out of subject were excluded. The classification was made by two researchers regarding study design/strategy, main findings and characteristics of the evaluative study according to research´s attributes in the area. The articles were published between 2002 and 2015. Southeastern region (48.9%) and public institutions (82.2%) account for the highest production. The highest concentration of articles was in Qualis A2 journals (48.9%). Most of the studies (86.6%) were quantitative and the largest proportion was about coverage and utilization (22.2%) and monitoring of health interventions (20%). The studies main characteristic was the availability and social distribution of resources (64.4%). The area´s production has been published in periodicals of relevance in Collective Health, which confers its importance for understanding the dynamics of care delivery, as a critical analysis and way of pointing out successful experiences and directions to be corrected in the policies, as recommended in the oral health conferences.