Caminhos do SUS : tecnologia social promotora de educação em saúde na adolescência.

Abstract

Introduction: This paper defends the thesis that the board game “Caminhos do SUS” (Paths of the Public Health System) is a social technology that promotes health education among adolescents. “Caminhos do SUS” is a board game developed to promote health education among adolescents. Through gamification, everyday situations have been transformed into missions to be solved using care and service devices offered within the Unified Health System (UHS), the Unified Social Assistance System (USAS), and other services involving citizenship. Due to its community nature, the product is a social technology capable of generating social transformation. Objectives: to present and reflect on the processes of development, evaluation, application, digitization, and validation of the board game and social technology promoting health education in adolescence “Caminhos do SUS,” an educational product for the promotion and education of health in adolescence. ARTICLE I – “CAMINHOS DO SUS: GAMIFICATION AS A SOCIAL TECHNOLOGY FOR HEALTH EDUCATION” - aims to describe and discuss the development of a social technology for health education through the technique of gamification. The game was created and developed through a participatory process involving adolescents. The game was recognized as a powerful tool for innovation in health education, capable of promoting autonomy and a sense of community. ARTICLE II – “ADOLESCENTS’ KNOWLEDGE OF HEALTH SERVICES: implications of a game for health education” – aimed to analyze schoolchildren’s knowledge of health and social services and the effects of a game for health education on the multiplication of knowledge. A questionnaire about knowledge of health services, before and after the game was played, was administered to 262 students from 20 municipal schools. Most adolescents were familiar with and used tertiary care services, to the detriment of primary, psychosocial, and social assistance services. After playing the game, students became familiar with services that were less recognized before the game. “Caminhos do SUS” was effective in promoting knowledge about the SUS and SUAS, establishing itself as a tool for building autonomy and multiplying health knowledge. ARTICLE III – “CAMINHOS DO SUS: EXPANSION OF A SOCIAL TECHNOLOGY TO ADDRESS HEALTH INEQUALITIES” – aimed to describe the work of expanding the board game “Caminhos do SUS”. Four new cards were created for the game, with the following themes: racism, people with disabilities, LGBTQIAPN+phobia, and bullying. The narratives included in the new cards are linked to health services in the region, with the aim of sharing knowledge about how they work in relation to these themes. ARTICLE IV – “PATHS TO CITIZENSHIP: DIGITAL GAME FOR HEALTH EDUCATION IN ADOLESCENCE” – describes the development process of the digital game “Paths to Citizenship,” an adaptation of the board game “Caminhos do SUS”. The aim was to improve elements of design, interactivity, and gameplay. The main changes were the reduction of the text in the missions and the addition of a summary item; the creation of a “Super Die” to keep the group engaged until the last participant finished. The test version was playful, well received, and suitable for the target audience, school-age adolescents. ARTICLE V– “VALIDATION OF AN EDUCATIONAL GAME FOR HEALTH EDUCATION IN ADOLESCENCE” – aims to validate the content of the board game by specialist professionals. Doctors specializing in health areas with experience in the field of adolescence and health education were invited to participate. The Educational Health Content Validation Instrument was applied to assess the game’s suitability for the target audience, teaching content, and applied teaching methods. Twenty-one experts from 10 different areas participated in the evaluation, 76.2% of whom worked in Rio Grande do Sul and 76.2% of whom were professors in graduate programs. The overall average content validity index was 0.9179, indicating agreement among the evaluators. The results point to the validity of the material, with aesthetic adjustments needed to improve readability. The content was validated in terms of clarity, relevance, and structure, as well as educational and social potential, with emphasis on the diversity of the experts' backgrounds and the consistency of the evaluations performed. Conclusions: “Caminhos do SUS”, in its analog or digital version, based on Health Education, expands knowledge about health and social assistance network services, fostering critical thinking about the realities experienced by adolescents and encouraging self-care and youth leadership. In addition, it contributes to the development of social relationship skills among adolescents and strengthens the articulation with public health and social assistance policies.