IMPACTS OF THE MEDIA IN THE SEARCH FOR THE IDEAL BODY: SELF-MEDICATION FOR AESTHETIC PURPOSES

Abstract

The demand for the perfect body is something that has been growing more and more due to illusory images created and propagated by the media, and to achieve this ideal many people self-medicate in order to reach an imposed standard, without any specific information about the medication and its adverse effects and how much it can worsen health. This research aims to contribute to the existing discussions about the impact of the media in the search for the ideal body and self-medication for aesthetic purposes, and relate them to user studies, drawing parallels with research on the media. Objective: To evidence the use of medications and/or products and how influential the media is with its power of dissemination. Methods: It also considers the importance of the collaboration of the sites LILACS, SciELO, ANVISA, Google academic and Reclame Aqui. Results: Data collection was done through an online quantitative survey. The analysis of the results indicated the products that are most used, their purposes and their adverse effects, besides analyzing the impact of media dissemination and gauging user satisfaction.