Carmo Rose Ferraz, Bevilacqua Paula Dias, Barletto Marisa
Escola de Saúde Pública do Estado de Minas Gerais, Avenida Augusto de Lima, 2061 Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Departamento de Veterinária, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Avenida Peter Henry Rolfs, s/n. Campus Universitário, Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil E-mail:
J Water Health. 2015 Sep;13(3):671-9. doi: 10.2166/wh.2015.171.
A qualitative study was developed aimed at understanding the social representations of water consumption by a segment of the population of a small town in Brazil. A total of 19 semi-structured interviews were carried out and subjected to a content analysis addressing opinion on drinking water, characteristics of drinking water and its correlation to health and diseases, criteria for water usage and knowledge on the source and accountability for drinking-water quality. Social representations of drinking water predominantly incorporate the municipal water supply and sanitation provider and its quality. The identification of the municipal water supply provider as alone responsible for maintaining water quality indicated the lack of awareness of any health surveillance programme. For respondents, chlorine was accountable for conferring colour, odour and taste to the water. These physical parameters were reported as the cause for rejecting the water supplied and suggest the need to review the focus of health-educational strategies based on notions of hygiene and water-borne diseases. The study allowed the identification of elements that could contribute to positioning the consumers vs. services relationship on a level playing field, enabling dialogue and exchange of knowledge for the benefit of public health.
开展了一项定性研究，旨在了解巴西一个小镇部分居民对水消费的社会认知。共进行了19次半结构化访谈，并对饮用水意见、饮用水特征及其与健康和疾病的关联、用水标准以及饮用水水源和质量责任知识进行了内容分析。饮用水的社会认知主要涉及市政供水和卫生服务提供商及其质量。认为市政供水提供商独自负责维持水质，这表明缺乏对任何健康监测计划的认识。对受访者而言，氯是赋予水颜色、气味和味道的原因。这些物理参数被报告为拒绝所供应水的原因，并表明有必要根据卫生和水传播疾病的观念审查健康教育策略的重点。该研究有助于确定一些因素，这些因素可促使消费者与服务关系处于公平竞争环境，促进对话和知识交流，以利于公众健康。
