Representaciones sociales de la salud sexual de adolescentes sordos y oyentes en la ciudad de Bogotá

Objective. To describe and analyze the structure and content of the social representations of sexual health in
three groups of adolescents: those who are deaf, those who use Colombian sign language (SLC), those with
hearing, and deaf users of spoken Spanish, with the aim of considering the sexual health of populations in
conditions of vulnerability, and their application in the area of public health. Method. A process-oriented
interpretative qualitative study was carried out, which employed analytical techniques using networks of
associations, interviews and drawings. Results. Different representations of sexual health were found among
the adolescents evaluated: those who were deaf, and users of SLC focused their representations on care of the body, illness and sexual pleasure. Those with hearing, for their part, construct representations around the
prevention of sexually transmitted disease and affective love, while the deaf adolescents who use Spanish do so
in relation to education, affective love and conventional relationships. Conclusion. The recognition of different
social representations of sexual health among hearing and deaf adolescents has become a challenge for
public health to the extent that it requires the recognition of needs and services in this field from a differential
perspective. The sexual health of persons in situations of vulnerability is a matter of human rights, which
question the way in which policies are formed nowadays, above all in cases where identity as a basic element
of the sexuality of these persons is unknown.