Cenas, fatos e mitos na prevenção do HIV/Aids: representações sociais de mulheres de uma escola pública de Juiz de Fora/MG

Abstract

With the advance of the worldwide HIV/AIDS epidemic women have become a significant segment of HIV/AIDS carriers, being now responsible for as many cases as those identified in men. AIDS generally affects women from underprivileged classes, with fewer schooling years, of a younger age, of married status and of heterosexual orientation. In order to contribute to the discourse on HIV/AIDS prevention in the female segment, this research aimed to: identify the spaces from which women access information on HIV/AIDS; describe the social representations of HIV/AIDS for women regularly attending a public secondary school; analyze the factors orienting the adoption of HIV/AIDS preventive measures by these women; and analyze the relationship between the social representations of HIV/AIDS and the strategies used by these women to reduce their vulnerability to HIV infection. The study was developed from the social approach to the qualitative research, with Social Representations as the theoretical principle. The data were collected through a semi-structured interview of twenty women from the night shift of a public school of the municipality of Juiz de Fora-MG, Brazil. The data were analyzed according to the thematic analysis proposed by Bardin. The statements obtained generated three categories: women designing access to AIDS information; women on stage: HIV/AIDS representations; and thinking and preventing: women reducing their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. The analysis of these categories showed the need of a more attentive, careful, and comprehensive approach to these women in their different contexts and realities, chiefly concerning sexual education, and giving due value to cultural and genre differences, so that they become fully aware of their choices and empowered to adopt protective sexual behavior that makes them less vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. From a critical and reflexive stance, the women`s representations highlight the urgency to establish consistent and effective links between the school and health services, in a common effort to develop and establish intervention programs and projects aiming, among other things, to motivate women to choose behaviors suited to their actual risk perceptions.