[Evolution of social representations about health among women from Madrid, 1993-2000]

In 1993, initial research was conducted among the women in Madrid. In 2000, a second research was conducted for the purpose of analyzing the possible evolution of the social representations related to health among women and, if necessary, to therefore reorient the health programs set forth in 1993 in terms of the results of the research. The aim was therefore to analyze the possible advancement of the opinions stated, of the health-related social representations which each one of the five types encountered in 1993 might express throughout the 1993-2000 period.

The qualitative research conducted in 2000 was based on the holding of 10 discussion groups defined according to the women's "typologies" which had been set out in the 1993 research. The types in question were characterized in terms of different sociodemographic variables and of the role which they had stated as most important in 1993. The analysis of the stated opinions was put into graphic and topological form in order to display the aforementioned trend in the social representations.

This research revealed some major changes having taken place throughout the 1993-2000 period, the predominant stated opinion-related perspective had evolved out of the "housewife" role to the "working woman" role in 2000, the predominant social representations stressed a dimension more nearing a persona balance in 2000, in which the role of women themselves, outside the bounds of their families, is of major importance. The scope of their concerns also evolved to a concern related to the stress involved in being a working woman plus a housewife.

This study made it possible to reach conclusions of a methodological type related to the ability of the qualitative methodology to make comparative, time-based studies and to conclusions of a more pragmatic type which afforded the possibility of changing the orientation of certain health programs aimed at women along a line more closely in keeping with their true concerns.