Abstract

ALVES, Railda Sabino Fernandes et al. The health profile of young male university students. Bol. - Acad. Paul. Psicol. [online]. 2017, vol.37, n.93, pp. 353-374. ISSN 1415-711X.

Gender studies show that men use behavior patterns historically constructed to express masculinity as being dominant in health. They believe in hegemonic ideas that they are strong, invincible, and that disease does not affect them. With that, they jeopardize their health. In interface with gender studies, this study had as its objective to know the health profile of young male university students majoring in health science courses. The methodology was quantitative and qualitative. The results showed that the male health profile was constructed based on three axles: 1. the social demographic profile that indicates a sample composed of 200 students from public universities in Paraíba; 2. the health profile that proves low compliance with smoking (91%), high alcohol consumption (65.5%), varied diet (44%), and physical exercise (82%) incorporated into the daily routine. The young men identified themselves as healthy and their most common diseases as being viruses. Visits to the doctor (89%) were to specialists and there was no report of disease prevention practices; 3. the profile of health promotion was traced from hypothetical answers that do not reflect the health practices actually performed. Health promotion was attributed to healthy eating, the practice of daily exercise, trips to the doctor, and not smoking or drinking. These answers are contradictory since maintaining healthy habits is not part of the lives of the majority of the interviewees. A paradigmatic change of male comprehension regarding their health care goes through the awareness of these contradictions between knowledge and practice and, accordingly, research investigating men as subjects of their health appears to contribute to the approximation of the idiosyncrasies of this universe

Keywords : men's health; male gender; health practices.

        · abstract in Portuguese | Spanish     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )