Mapeamento do uso e preenchimento da caderneta da criança no acompanhamento do crescimento e desenvolvimento - uma revisão de escopo

Abstract

The Child Health Booklet (Caderneta da Criança — CC) is the primary surveillance tool for child growth and development in Brazilian primary healthcare. This scoping review aimed to map the scientific literature on its use, recording, and assessment by health professionals, identifying patterns, associated factors, and knowledge gaps. The study followed the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology and PRISMA-ScR guidelines. Searches were conducted in LILACS, PubMed, and SciELO with filters for language, full text, and a ten-year time frame. Twenty-two Brazilian studies published between 2016 and 2024 were included, predominantly cross-sectional in design and geographically concentrated in the Northeast region. All studies identified inadequacies in instrument use or completion, characterizing the problem as systemic. Neuropsychomotor development was the domain of greatest deficiency, with recording rates between 0% and 31%; body mass index-for-age was systematically neglected; and vaccination was the only consistently completed item. Factors associated with underuse were identified at three levels: professional (lack of specific training in 62.5% to 86.4% of professionals), organizational (absence of municipal childcare protocols, work overload, and competition with electronic health records), and family-related (non-availability of the Booklet at consultations and low maternal education). The findings indicate that underuse of the Child Health Booklet results from the interaction of training deficiencies, organizational fragilities, and the absence of monitoring mechanisms — a structural problem that compromises comprehensive child health monitoring in primary care.