Brazilian Nursing Communication Symposium
SIBRACEN

Abstract

SABIONI, Rosane Rossi, GALANTE, Anderson Cleyton and PELA, Nilza Teresa Rotter. The meaning of hydrotherapy: a study with adult women. In Proceedings of the 8. Brazilian Nursing Communication Symposium, 2002, San Pablo (SP, Brazil) [online]. 2002 [cited 10 October 2024]. Available from: <http://www.proceedings.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=MSC0000000052002000100003&lng=en&nrm=iso> .

Researchers aimed to detect the meaning that a group of 33 adult women under hydrotherapy attributed to their therapeutic activity. The Representational Theory of Meanings proposed by Ogden and Richards was used and analysis of the subjects' accounts was made according to André (1983). In the referent element, the detected topics were therapeutic activity, sports activity, relief of pain and symptoms. In the reference element, the revealed topics were feeling of well-being, preservation of physical integrity, pleasant socialization, pleasant activity, improvement in quality of life, improvement in self-esteem and physical and mental improvement. From the total number of answers in the referent, 50% of the people considered it to be a therapeutic activity. From the total number of answers in the reference, 24.5% of the subjects believe that hydrotherapy improves quality of life and provides the feeling of well-being. The topic pleasant socialization occurred in only 11.3% of the accounts. It was concluded that women attribute a positive meaning to the hydrotherapeutic activity and that they see only benefits in it.

Keywords : hydrotherapy; women`s health; exercise therapy.