Underreporting as a Reflection of the Health Surveillance Management Process (Atena Editora)

Abstract

Health Surveillance is responsible for monitoring the health status of the population and taking action to control diseases and conditions that pose a risk to public health. To achieve this, the primary source of information used is notifications, which originate from healthcare units. Surveillance actions are often compromised by the underreporting of diseases and conditions. This study aims to describe underreporting as a reflection of the health surveillance management process, analyzing how organizational aspects influence the occurrence of underreporting and proposing measures to improve notification systems. This is a bibliographic, exploratory, and descriptive study, using the following descriptors: epidemiology, public health surveillance, and underreporting. A total of 43 publications were analyzed, 24 of which were used for this study, addressing the structure and competencies of health surveillance, and the underreporting of diseases and conditions. It was concluded that underreporting is multifactorial; however, actions to address the problem, particularly the ongoing awareness-raising of care professionals, are not being carried out by health surveillance professionals. It is necessary to integrate the surveillance service with care services to minimize the fragmentation of actions. However, this requires active engagement from surveillance technicians, including technical support, ongoing training, and supervision of notification processes.