Generation and generational categories in researches about health and gender in Brazil

Abstract

The healthcare field has long recognized sociocultural factors as multi-determinant of production processes of health-illness-care and has discussed the dynamism between gender, race/ethnic and social class, as well as the conjugation of those categories in order to understand the differences and inequalities in health. The category generation, as one of the most influential social constructions in the process of health-illness, is yet poorly explored in studies on the health area and is many times, reduced to age cohort studies. This study of systematic review of the literature characterized as descriptive-discursive, aimed to situate critically the theoretical and analytical construct of the generation category as well as its related empirical categories (childhood, youth, maturity, and oldness) in studies on gender in health carried out in Brazil between the years 2001 and 2013. A descriptive analysis of 225 abstracts and a qualitative analysis of 57 complete texts were carried out by searches on the Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde (BVS). The results indicate a deflating of conceptual reference about the generation and the empirical categories analyzed, especially maturity. Regarding the empirical studies, the necessity of a better appropriation of a conceptual reference of generation becomes clear and, among the review, theoretical or essayistic studies, it can be noticed the importance of amplifying the conceptual reference of the generational category, and also of bringing elements to its applicability on health policies and practices.

Generation; Generational category; Gender; Health