An analysis of social representations of obesity by health professionals in primary health care
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12957/demetra.2023.70592Keywords:
Social Representations. Obesity. Overweight. Health Professionals. Primary Health Care.Abstract
Introduction: The understanding of whatobesity is will influence the way we structure public policies, the training process of health professionals, and, mainly, care practices. Objective: To analyze the social representations of obesity among Primary Health Care professionals in the state of Bahia, Brazil. Method: This brief communication refers to qualitative research, anchored in the Theory of Social Representations, developed in the context of a course on the qualification of care for people with overweight and obesity. For data production, we used an online semi-structured questionnaire and the Free Word Association Technique, based on the stimulus “Write the first three words that come to your mind when you think about obesity”. The prototypical analysis was carried out with the assistance of the OpenEvoc software. Results: The results indicate that the central core of social representations about obesity was formed by the elements disease, food, overweight and fat, while the words mental health, quality of life, physical activity, stigma, health, and multifactorial constitute the peripheral system. They revealed that the pathological and individualized perspective is predominant, despite the enhancement of modern scientific knowledge and institutional guidelines on obesity; the assumption of psycho-emotional factors in the development of obesity; as well as the incipience of the multifactorial, ecological, and/or syndemic approach to obesity. Conclusion: This study suggests that research deepens the study of such social representations, and their motivations in the educational, labor, and social field, like the analysis of what consolidates and provokes the newly announced narratives.
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