The knowledge production about HIV/AIDS and social representations in 25 years of the epidemic

Abstract

This is a exploratory, descriptive and quantitative research. Its objective is to identify and to analyze the scientific production about social representations related to the HIV/AIDS, in dissertations, thesis and articles. The virtual databases searched were: CAPES, BIREME, USP and UFRJ, with the criteria: to present the terms HIV and/or AIDS and the expression social representation or social representations in the abstracts; to be published between 1980 and 2006; in the languages portuguese, spanish and english. The majority of the studies analyzed were published between 2001 and 2006, with the largest quantitative of productions in the nursing field. The largest of the group studied were patients with HIV or AIDS and adolescents. The locations for data collection most used were the school and the hospital. The predominant themes were “social representation about HIV/AIDS”, “prevention of HIV/AIDS” and “living with the HIV/AIDS”. Its concluded that there is a growing interest of researchers in the psychosocial approach of the social representations and HIV/AIDS, defining a scientific response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Key words: Nursing; Nursing Research; HIV; Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome.