Author:

• Ana Lucia Lobo Vianna Cabral - Cabral, ALLV - Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais - Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais - UFMG - <allcabral@yahoo.com.br>

Thematic Area:

Não Categorizado

Abstract:

Knowledge about health-seeking processes may contribute to our understanding of behavior in relation to health care and utilization of health services. In Brazil, however, there have been few studies of therapeutic itineraries despite their relevance, and those available are relatively new and have not received the attention they merit from health researchers and managers. This article presents the results of a survey of Brazilian scientific literature on this subject published in the past 20 years, describing and analyzing the approaches used.
Data were collected during September and November 2008 through the portal of the Virtual Health Library. The search located 11 articles. Content analysis was used to generate categories. The majority of these studies are grounded in anthropological theory, and the main focus of interest is the patient’s perception of the disease and its treatment. Only a few of these publications address patients’ access to and utilization of health services. It is argued that the study of therapeutic itineraries can be an important tool for improving the quality of health care.

Key words: anthropology, accessibility of health services, therapeutic itineraries.

Content:

Access Issue in Scielo

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