Resumo

FIGUEIREDO, Maria Fernanda Santos; RODRIGUES NETO, João Felício  e  LEITE, Maisa Tavares de Souza. Health education in the context of Family Health from the user's perspective. Interface (Botucatu) [online]. 2012, vol.16, n.41, pp. 315-329. ISSN 1414-3283.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1414-32832012000200003.

This study aimed to understand users' perspectives regarding health education and its significance in everyday life, through qualitative, descriptive and exploratory research. The participants were eleven users registered with a family health team in Montes Claros, MG, Brazil, whose frequency of attendance of educational activities carried out in 2007, in health education groups, was not less than five times. Data were gathered through unstructured interviews and were analyzed by means of discourse analysis. The results revealed three empirical categories: "Health education practice in the family health team", "Health education provides meaningful learning" and "Health education favors changes in users' health". The health education groups, in which the sessions used pedagogical approaches of conditioning, transmission and/or problem-solving, favored meaningful learning among users. This enabling changes regarding living habits, use of autonomy and taking responsibility for health.

Palavras-chave : Health Education; Learning; Primary Health Care; Family Health; Qualitative research.