[Association between the incidence rates for gestational syphilis and congenital syphilis and prenatal care coverage in the State of Bahia, Brazil].

This study aimed to analyze the association between incidence rates for gestational and congenital syphilis and coverage of prenatal care from 2007 to 2017 in the State of Bahia, Brazil. This was an ecological and longitudinal study in which the units of analysis were the municipalities (counties) of the State of Bahia. Secondary data were used, obtained from the databases of the Health Information Systems. Analysis of the association between the incidence rates and prenatal coverage was performed with panel datal, using the fixed model with negative binomial response, controlled for socioeconomic, demographic, and temporal variables. In the multivariate analyses, prenatal coverage showed a statistically significant positive association with gestational syphilis incidence rate, but no association was found with congenital syphilis the incidence rate. Using municipalities with prenatal coverage < 45% as the reference group, the gestational syphilis incidence rate increased by 22% and 25%, respectively, in municipalities with prenatal coverage of 45%-64.9% (RR = 1.22; 95%CI: 1.11-1.33) and ≥ 65% (RR = 1.25; 95%CI: 1.10-1.43). The findings indicate that although the expansion of prenatal coverage in municipalities in Bahia has helped improve the detection of gestational syphilis, it did not impact the congenital syphilis incidence rate. Prenatal care as provided suffers limitations that should be the target of interventions to prevent and block vertical syphilis transmission.