WEAVING SENSES AMONG HEALTH CARE, INFORMATION, AND CULTURE: PERCEPTIONS AND REPORTS FROM PATIENTS AT THE ONOFRE LOPES UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL
Health; Care; Culture; Information; Habits.
This research contains information, health care, and culture as its three guiding threads. Even with continuous information in a hypermodern era, which suffers great influence from cultural aspects, health care can be perceived in many different ways. Adopting a healthy lifestyle may help prevent several diseases, including cardiovascular ones, which are responsible for the highest number of deaths in the world according to the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO). Considering these aspects, as well as the complexity of the subject, the problem that instigates the development of this research is: what is people’s perception of health care? Thus, our main objective is to investigate how health care is perceived and applied by patients at the Cardiovascular System Unit of the Onofre Lopes University Hospital (OLUH), in order to relate it to cultural traits of our society. This is a field research of a qualitative approach, with an exploratory nature, which aims at clarifying the study problem. A semi-structured interview centered on the problem was carried out with patients from the OLUH. This interview allowed the combination of narratives and issues, so as to contribute to the participants’ opinions emerging more easily. For the Onofre Lopes Hospital, it is expected to increase knowledge upon the behavior of the patients for more assertive and effective actions regarding health information.