Impact of the environment on school students' health: social representations of the health care team

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Environmental health concerns certain aspects of human health that includes life quality and it is defined by environmental, physical, social and dietary conditions.
OBJECTIVE: Investigate the social representations (RS) about the impact of the environment on the health of schoolchildren in the healthcare team (HTC) of two municipal Primary Health Care Centers (PHCC), Córdoba 2019.
METHODOLOGICAL DESIGN: The investigation was carried out through a qualitative perspective based on the Grounded Theory, with an emergent design. Thirteen open interviews were made through the constant comparison method. Data was validated by investigator triangulation.

RESULTS: From the interviews, five categories of analysis were designed. From Health perspective, three main dimensions were identified: physics, psychology and social, with the exception of environmental dimension. The environment is represented with negative connotations and not as the necessary mean for the upbringing and development of human beings. The HCT delegates the responsibility of the physical environment to the Government and the market. Meanwhile, the social environment as a determining of children health is responsibility of the interactive connection near to the child. Even though HCT acknowledges the market influences on the dietary environment, the final responsibility of food consumption relies on the individual.
CONCLUSION: The HCT does not include the environment as part of Health perspective. While investigating about the environment’s impact on children’s health, the HCT considers that is controlled by their parents and caregivers, with the exception of environmental contamination, in which the Government and the market’s role are to blame for.