The meaning that health professionals attribute to promotion of the health of adolescents

This article analyzes the meanings attributed to practices that promote adolescent health by 47 professionals from the Family Health Program in Fortaleza in the State of Ceará. It is a qualitative study in which semi-structured interviews enabled the production of data, subsequently organized according to content analysis, resulting in the following core themes: promoting health associated with injury prevention; limitation of health promotion to the school environment; the lack of health promotion for adolescents in the healthcare service; and partnerships as a viable way of promoting health for adolescents. The health promotion actions were developed in a timely manner and mostly in the pre-natal, family planning, and cancer prevention programs. The health professionals found the school environment to be an important and viable place for a partnership for health promotion actions for adolescents. There was evidence, albeit incipient, of the health professionals' desire to reorient this practice in the healthcare service.