SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS OF HEALTH AND ILLNESS INVESTIGATING THE STATE OF THE ART

Abstract

Documented investigation of retrospective character that has as objective to identify the current state of the art in connection with the academic production with respect to the health and the illness from the perspective of the social representations. It was used like instrument the bibliographical consultation in some databases in access health "on-line", MEDLINE-BIREME, taking advantage of the easiness and speed for their treatment. The consulted bases were located through Internet and offered with basic describers and search Boolean, to guarantee the certainty in the attainment of the articles. These were classified - previous translation to Spanish - with base in some variables: year of publication, country, language, complementary theoretical, thematic focus, and emphasis area in the work, disciplines it bases. The used describers were: health, illness, representations; health, illness, concepts; health, illness, social representations. Was carried out a filter and purified selection of the information. This way, 58 works were located whose components show a notable increment of the production as a result starting from the decade of the 90, focused toward the cultural and social aspects of the health and the illness, with marked leadership on the part of the psychology and the psychiatry. The nursing production is scarce and limited to the description of concrete pathologies with you indexes them theoretical diverse and varied methodologies that demonstrate a hole to discipline. The work only highlights the importance of the investigation of the state of the art, like a tool that allows to the investigator, not to know the up-to-date production, but also the opportunity to have a bigger knowledge in connection with the investigation type, thematic ones and the development areas, offering the professor a true learning experience that can be shared and lived in a combined way with the students.