Significados das práticas corporais para usuários da Estratégia Saúde da Família e as implicações para a saúde

Abstract

This research addresses the experiences of users regarding body practices, together with the researcher's experience, as well as their relationship with the body and health in the context of Primary Health Care. The general objective is to understand the meanings of body practices and their possible implications for the health of users of the Family Health Strategy of Limoeiro do Norte/CE. In addition, identifying the reasons for participation in the group of body practices, knowing how users feel when performing these activities, understanding the meanings given to perform these practices and noting the relationships of body practices with health characterize our specific objectives. The methodological approach was focused on the phenomenological method based on MerleauPonty's studies and, through the situated phenomenon strategy, we understood the lived world of nine users of the body practices group of the Pequeno Atirador Family Health Unit. In this context, we used semi-structured interviews, observations of the researched group, and the construction of a logbook. The users' reports allowed us to build units of meaning related to the apprehension of the perceptions of the body and health in face of the motivations and meanings of the body practices. The identification of paradoxes through the linear relationship of body practices with health is present in the interviewees' dialogues. We highlight the contact with the significant other to the point that the affective bonds trigger the permanence in the group of body practices and awaken the affective dimension of health. We identified in the body practices a leisure space absent in the researched territory. Thus, this study brought reflections to Physical Education through the interconnection of the concepts of body, health, body practices, and leisure, such as the expansion of values and the existential concept of health, requiring further discussions on the actions of Physical Education in the context of Public Health.