This study looks at vulnerability of adolescents who live in a São Paulo city region: SILOS - Butantã. It takes into account that: first, adolescents are social individuals whose development is determined by their life histories, according to their social status and their particular psychological development; second, that the social-illness process is socially determined and, therefore, adolescents' vulnerability to health problems is articulated with the work and life conditions of their families. The objective of this study is to characterize the social settings that allow and facilitate specific health problems of the adolescents. Focusing the Local Health System (SILOS) of Butantâ - health assistance area of the University Hospital - it was possible to establish a methodological trajectory to analyze secondary data from the districts of this area. The analysis shows that the district of Raposo Tavares -among all the disctricts of the area - is one of the territories that deserves to be under new investigations and health intervention especially for two reasons. First, it presents a larger number of Gh-3 families (deficient way of life and work) and a smaller number of Gh-1 families (adequate way of life and work) among the districts of the focused area. Second: it was the district that received the worse punctuation in the exclusion/inclusion map of São Paulo city.
Adolescent; territory; social vulnerability