Água, sanitização e higiene: perspectivas para a educação em saúde em uma comunidade tradicional no norte brasileiro

Abstract

Hygiene is characterized as a set of actions and choices that support a healthy life, which involves individual and collective aspects - such as the adoption of self-care habits as well as access to minimum conditions of drinking water and basic sanitation. Within this perspective, the present work sought to raise what concepts education professionals from the basic education network present in an interview about Hygiene and what notion of accessibility to resources for hygiene in their school and community presented for the child hygiene of students who are part of their school. . Method: The present study is cross-sectional and descriptive in nature approved and registered with CAAE 56954116.2.0000.5516. Seven volunteers from the professional staff of a school registered in a territory recognized as a quilombola remnant participated in the study. They were interviewed about their sociodemographic information, their concepts of hygiene and their perception of the resources available to their students to adopt hygiene habits. Results: The following categories emerged from our analyses: Conceptualization of Hygiene; The importance of accessibility to resources for maintaining hygiene; Actors involved in health promotion through health education with an emphasis on personal care. In short, all interviewees reported having already been taught or talked to students at the school unit about hygiene and necessary considerations regarding the topic; Two of the seven interviewees discussed it as “difficult” to approach the topic; Two stated that the school has what is necessary to maintain hygiene in the school's surroundings and six responded that there is some insufficiency for children and adolescents to have an adequate standard of hygiene at home. Conclusion: Access to conditions that favor the adoption of hygiene practices are still insufficient in the perception of interviewees in the study community.