Lifestyle and the interface with health demands of adolescents

Abstract

Introduction: Adolescence is a phase where biological, cognitive, emotional and social changes take place, lifestyles are adopted and autonomy
is gained, but it is also a phase of vulnerabilities. Because physical health predominates in this life phase, there is a common lack of spontaneous
demand and actions in health services directed to this group. Objective: To analyze the demands of adolescents related to their lifestyle in the
interface with health. Method: This is a qualitative study with comprehensiveness as analytical category, developed with adolescents of two public
schools. The empirical material was produced in reflection workshops, which constituted the space for collective construction of knowledge. Data
were analyzed through the discourse analysis technique, for which a discourse is a social position whose ideological formations are materialized in
language. Results: Adolescents conceive health under the view of promotion and protection, highlighting healthy eating as a value to be incorporated;
physical activity as a generator of pleasure and well-being, and non-related to the view of body as an ideal beauty standard; and drug use and
abuse as a space of vulnerability. Conclusion: Adolescents presented a critical view about reality and they valued the specificities of adolescents as
objects of care. Their demands should be a starting point for planning actions in the perspective of comprehensiveness, which requires a partnership
between health and educational systems.