[Construction workers' reactions to educational materials: a debate on relations between health and work]

This study focuses on the reactions of construction workers to educational materials (posters, folders, and leaflets) produced by the Brazilian Ministries of Health and Labor. The authors conducted two focal groups at construction sites in the city of Rio de Janeiro to analyze four educational materials, employing thematic analysis. The article presents the workers' perspective on the themes discussed in the leaflets, classified in two groups of meaning: health and social control. They go on to discuss how workers' display an expanded vision of health to the extent that it includes social determinants of the health-disease process. The study identified the workers' limited participation in work-process surveillance activities and their lack of knowledge concerning workers' health measures adopted by the Ministry of Health. The authors conclude that the analysis of educational materials by their target public represents a privileged place for negotiating meanings and grasping ways of life in specific groups. They suggest educational activities using leaflets as a means to motivate critical analysis of the health-disease process.