Cultura informacional, saúde masculina e homens em construção: modos de viver e ver

Abstract

From a multidisciplinary perspective, this research aims to identify, analyze and understand the informational and cultural dimensions that are underlying the relationship of men and their health, having as subjects of the study the civil engineering workers of the Federal District. In specific terms, the study aimed to correlate the theoretical-conceptual dimensions between information, culture, informational culture, and masculinities; to apprehend the health meanings attributed by the research subjects and their care practices; and to map the informational processes that permeate the search for care, from the perspective of Therapeutic Itineraries and Health Information Seeking. Methodologically, as a focus of the research, a construction site located in Brasilia was elected, in a region identified as Plano Piloto. The study was conducted through an evidential standard of looking for elements sometimes neglected in the particularities of the empirical context in understanding its totality. Through a quantitative-qualitative approach, data collection was developed in two stages, using the following techniques: documentary research, participant observation, questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews (Step 1); participant observation and focus group (Step 2). The results of the research revealed that civil construction workers are immersed in an informational culture that shapes and reinforces ways of noticing and acting, regarding health demands, according to socially established standards. The meanings of health and care practices pointed out by the interviewees converge to the concern of promoting necessary conditions for work. In the informational itinerary developed by these subjects, it is evident the consolidation of a social support network, whose centrality of these strong bonds is represented by the female figure (wife, mother, and daughter) and the pharmacist, while the company's doctor and the construction site colleagues are configured as weak bonds, due to the scarcity of informational exchanges related to health issues. The results also show that living and working conditions, education level, financial restrictions, lack of public health services with humanized reception, limitations, and difficulties in accessing health information are reported as obstacles to self-care. When trying to understand this reality, the stereotyped view that men do not take care of their health was questioned. Finally, due to the questions posed by this research and the results found, it is highlighted the relevance of the investigative effort in the search to expand the dialogues between the field of Information Science and Collective Health, in order to boost and make effective the actions of an extensive nature, in national terms, aiming the promotion of whole male health, having as points of reflection the ways of living and points of view from the men under construction in this research.