RIVERSIDE MEN'S KNOWLEDGE AND WAYS OF ACTING REGARDING CONDOM USE

a qualitative study anchored in the Theory of Social Representations and conducted with 21 riverside men from the São Carlos do Jamari community, Porto Velho, Rondônia, Brazil. Data collection was performed between January and July 2019 by means of an interview with a semi-structured questionnaire. For data processing, the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software was used, obtaining the participants' characterization through descriptive statistics, in addition to IRAMUTEq^® for the lexical analysis of the speeches, by means of the Descending Hierarchical Classification, obtaining five thematic classes, among which Class 5 was deepened on in this study.

Results

the social representations were produced by adult participants, with complete High School, per capita family income of up to one minimum wage, and sexually active with irregular condom use. It was identified that the participants develop a cognitive dimension, which reveals their knowledge about condoms as a form of prevention; however, elements such as interference in pleasure, stable relationship and a negative evaluative dimension result in irregular use of the device and in risky behaviors in their sexual practices.

Conclusion

social representations are anchored in reified knowledge, in the discourse of the preventive functionality of condoms, and in masculinity stereotypes. Consequently, the riverside men's knowledge is not manifested in their behaviors. Therefore, this social group lacks health promotion actions that enable changes in their care behaviors and practices.

DESCRIPTORS:
Population groups; Men's health; Sexual health; Reproductive health; Social Psychology

Socioeconomic characterization	Characterization of the relational life	Characterization of the reproductive life
81% aged between 25 and 49 years old 85.7% brown-skinned 82.4% practicing Catholics 42.9% with complete High School 47.6% freelancers 52.4% with personal incomes > 2 minimum wages* 85.71% with per capita family incomes of up to 1 minimum wage 100% reported Television as information source 90.5% access the community health service, with an annual frequency of 57.9%	100% heterosexual individuals 71.4% have a female partner 42.9% married individuals 53.3% current relationship for more than 15 years	71.4% semenarche between 13 and 15 years old 57.1% sexarche between 13 to 15 years 100% with active sex life 52.4% report intercourse from 2 to 4 times/week 71.4% do not report STIs 43.8% use male condoms as the only contraceptive method 69.2% report unplanned pregnancies 61.9% report irregular male condom use 42.9% access information on SRH in lectures

Class 5 - Knowledge, attitudes, behaviors and practices regarding condom use in sexual relations Variable associated with class formation: age group from 15 to 19 years old - adolescents (p=<0.0001) Participants with the greatest contribution to the formation of their discursive content: MP_15 (p=0.00125), MP_16 (p=0.00433) MP_05 (p=0.00860), MP_02 (p=0.02130) and MP_03 (p=0.04643).
Representational content/element	Terms	p-value
Cognitive dimension	condom	<0.0001
	use (v)	<0.0001
	disease	<0.0001
	avoid	<0.0001
	lecture	<0.0001
	method	<0.0001
	information	<0.0001
	sexual relation	<0.0001
	prevention	<0.0001
	prevent	<0.0001
	school	<0.0001
	use (n)	<0.0001
	guide	<0.0001
	aids	<0.0001
	safe	<0.0001
	gonorrhea	<0.0001
	team	<0.0001
	sexually transmitted diseases*	<0.0001
Condoms are prevention, because we can’t have many children these times and condoms are also good to avoid diseases and unplanned pregnancies. The safest method for not catching any disease are condoms (MP_8). I was 16 when I got gonorrhea. I was young, I was already well informed, I had already heard about it, people commented close to me. I was drinking at a party, alcohol helped for me to forget about the condom (MP_7). If I only have sex with my wife, I won't need to use a condom and my wife won't need to use the pill, that's how it is, our way (MP_11). There are lectures on prevention at school sometimes. I participate in the lectures that appear. There at school there's a teacher who talks directly, sometimes she takes the afternoon off and the teacher tells everything right away, sexual intercourse, hygiene (MP_15). From time to time, there's the team here at the health center that gives lectures at school about prevention methods, when it's not the team, it's the health agents (MP_14). I went looking for all the information myself. I don't just research the basics, I research further on so I can get an idea. I access several sites that have this information about sex, women's menstruation, about men in relation to ejaculation (MP_2). My father didn't talk to me about this, perhaps because he didn't know, also my mother. And our information was scarce in São Carlos, progress arrived here recently, the Internet (MP_6).
Negative evaluative dimension	get in the way	<0.0001
	interfere	<0.0001
	prefer	<0.00015
	pleasure	<0.00329
It gets in the way of sex, having to put on a condom reduces pleasure, having to use a condom creates another climate (MP_9). Actually, I think that no man likes using condoms because they reduce pleasure, I can't explain, it's different, it's not the same to have sex without a condom (MP_5). I only used condoms out of necessity, but I never liked them because they interfere with sex. (MP_7). I buy my condoms, I prefer to buy them because fetching them at the health center makes me ashamed and I think purchased condoms are better, safer (MP_15). I buy condoms, I prefer to, the others they give are thick. Those from the health center don't offer much pleasure, at least for me. The others I buy are thinner, I feel the woman more (MP_13).

Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Programa de Pós Graduação em Enfermagem Campus Universitário Trindade, 88040-970 Florianópolis - Santa Catarina - Brasil, Tel.: (55 48) 3721-4915 / (55 48) 3721-9043 - Florianópolis - SC - Brazil
E-mail: textoecontexto@contato.ufsc.br

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[1] CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Elen Petean Parmejiani elenpetean@unir.br