Abstract
The article analyzes the perceptions of professionals of a basic health unit regarding the relationship between religion and health in order to apprehend how the ways of considering religion in health practices can produce equities or iniquities. It is an exploratory study of qualitative approach developed from individual structured interviews, analyzed with the intention of detecting signification practices relevant to the discussion of equity in health. The results highlight: a negative conception of the influence of the user’s religion on care and agency interested in reducing this interference of religion; the difficulties and discomforts related to the way the professional deals with their own religion in the exercise of care and in the interprofessional relationship; that the Brazilian National Health System does not consider the religious dimension, creating the need for specific public policies or deep cultural transformations; and the lack of knowledge of the characteristics of Afro-Brazilian religions that demand specific care. These results suggest that negligence of the religious question conceals a proactive practice of erasing differences, which leads to a reflection on what, in the case of equities and iniquities, has produced the modern epistème within the framework of the practices instituted in the Primary Health Care.
Keywords:
Equity; Religion; Ecology of Knowledge