Adolescentes: saúde, doença e risco

TL;DR: Adolescents understand disease as a problem and risk as something that exists in the outer social environment.

Abstract: This article is part of my master dissertation and its objective is to compare the understanding adolescents have about disease, health and risk with that presented by the official documents about adolescent health care produced by Brazilian and international organizations (Ministry of Health of Brazil; Pan American Health Organization). This work consisted of trying to grasp the adolescents’ understanding of the concepts through the use of the Oral History methodology. A basic premise was that what was said could not be taken in the abstract, but was related to the surrounding environment - therefore expressing socially constructed ways of being and thinking. I observed that disease was perceived as a “problem” to which there are solutions. Risk was seen as something that exists in the outer social environment, a rather different view from that of the of ficial documents, which understand adolescence itself as being the risk. I hope that with the results of the comparison between these two ways of understanding the world, the proposal concerning adolescents care will come closer to the reality and needs of the adolescents themselves.