[Production of information on mortality from external causes: meanings and significances in the filling out of death certificates]. / Produção da informação sobre mortalidade por causas externas: sentidos e significados no preenchimento da declaração de óbito.

The study sought to understand the meanings and significances that physicians attribute to the Death Certificate (DO) and the implications of subjectivity in the production of information on mortality. Guided by qualitative research, semi-structured interviews and content analysis, techniques were chosen for understanding representations and experiences involved in the filling out of the DO. The results revealed that different meanings and significances are attributed to the DO depending on how death occurred, in accordance with the different attributes the document acquires from a practical standpoint, in terms of 'epidemiological' and 'legal' functions. The results suggest that the DO used as a technical and objective instrument for data collection and production of health statistics does not lack subjectivity, which turns it into an instrument that in the medical practice and social reality reflects cultural issues, the social position of the subjects who fill it out and their representations of death.

[The use of apetite inhibitors by women: an insight based on the gender perspective]. / O uso de inibidores de apetite por mulheres: um olhar a partir da perspectiva de gênero.

The scope of this study was to understand the motives that lead adult women to use appetite inhibitors and to establish, from a gender perspective, how these women relate to their own bodies. It was structured around the principles of qualitative research, and the methods of data collection were semi-structured interviews and direct observation. The informants were six women who used appetite inhibitors. The results indicated that images, publicity and social networks contribute significantly to the creation of new standards of physical appearance as well as lifestyles, which establish appearance (a slim body) and a happy marriage as the desired model. The slim body is represented as something able to alter the temperament of the individual, in other words a fat person is an unhappy person and a slim person is a happy person. The study shows that it is in the body per se that the social role destined for women is produced and reproduced.