Obesity, education, and change: displacements of the senses and meanings for health professionals in primary care

Abstract This article analyzed the possible shifts in the senses and meanings of obesity for primary care health professionals in Bahia after a health education initiative. A qualitative study carried out with 37 participants, which used a semi-structured online questionnaire and method triangulation (Free Word Association Technique - prototypical analysis, open question - content analysis, and Obesity Development Factors - descriptive statistical analysis). The Concept and Etiological Approaches categories revealed significant inflections in the senses and meanings of obesity, beyond the biological and biomedical model, in dialogue with the ecological, syndemic, and multifactorial approaches, in addition to evocating anthropological perspectives and body diversity. They also revealed the assumption of concerns about the prevalence and resolution of care practices, the question of the uniqueness of obesity, and the limitation of the evaluation method by Body Mass Index, evidence that contributes to the reflection of health education in the structuring of curricula to the light of the multifactorial nature and complexity of this phenomenon.