Objective:

To assess the quality of Family Health Strategy (FHS) services by measuring structure, process, and result dimensions, as well as their relations with essential attributes of primary health care (PHC).

Materials and method:

Quantitative research study with a cross-sectional design. The sample was intentional, stratified, and proportional. A total of 95 professionals, 48 nurses and 47 medical doctors of family health team, as well as 203 public health users in all the 26 primary health care units at the municipality of Chapecó, Santa Catarina, Brazil, were interviewed. The data collection tool was based on Avedis Donabedian's theoretical framework . Inferential statistical analysis and multiple linear regression was used for primary data analysis.

Results:

The quality of FHS in the studied city is determined by its structural dimension, which is established by the number of health teams per inhabitant, access to health services, the location of primary health care units in each territory, and the availability of medicine. The working process dimension evaluated bonding and integrality in health services, the effectiveness of house calls, and the initiatives of institutional support to assessment processes. Regarding the result dimension, the means of consultation events scheduling, care agility, and the therapeutic relationship were responsible for users' satisfaction.

Conclusions:

The quality of FHS, assessed by using the analytic matrix structure, process, and result dimensions, is significantly related to essential attributes of PHC. These attributes may strengthen the FHS as public health policy.

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