The social perspective of viral hepatitis: Scope review

Abstract

Introduction: Viral hepatitis is a health problem that affects millions of people, are among the main causes of disability and death in the world and affect different vulnerable social groups. This scenario led the World Health Organization to include the reduction of cases and deaths from viral hepatitis in the agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals. Objective: To map research on viral hepatitis with references that explore a social perspective of Collective Health. Method: This is a scoping review whose searches were carried out in the Virtual Health Library, in the Scientific Electronic Library Online, in the Scopus database and the Google Scholar grey literature database. Studies in Portuguese, Spanish and English were included, with no publication deadline. Data were extracted using an instrument developed by the authors and submitted to thematic content analysis with the support of webQDA software. Results: 36 articles were selected for reading. From the full reading of the publications, three empirical categories emerged: The social perspective in the health-disease process of viral hepatitis; The expression of social categories in the phenomenon of viral hepatitis; Health needs associated with viral hepatitis. Conclusions: The social perspective of viral hepatitis is approached by studies in an incipient way and there is no in-depth analysis of the potential for wear and tear and strengthening of populations belonging to different vulnerable social groups. The methodology used proved to be adequate to analyze scientific productions in-depth, especially those that address the social perspective.