Primary health care coverage in Brazil: a dataset from 1998 to 2020

OBJECTIVES: Primary health care builds the backbone of an effective healthcare system and can improve population health, reduce cost growth, and lessen inequality. We offer a machine-readable and open-access dataset on primary health care coverage in Brazil from 1998 to 2020. This dataset is interoperable with epidemiological data from two major studies and reusable by the research community worldwide for other purposes, such as monitoring progress toward universal health coverage and studying the association between primary health care and health outcomes. DATA DESCRIPTION: The dataset gathers official and public information from the “e-Gestor AB” platform of the Ministry of Health of Brazil and restricted data obtained by the Brazilian Access to Information Law. It includes 1,509,870 observations and 35 attributes aggregated by months/years and policy-relevant geographic units (country, macroregions, states, municipalities, and capitals) on primary health care team count and their absolute and relative population coverage estimates, information on the More Doctors Program implementation and physician counts, and spatial, demographic, and socioeconomic characteristics. We automated all data processing and curation in the free and open software R. The codes can be audited, replicated, and reused to produce alternative analyses.