Antunes PC, Tesser CD, Fraga AB. Bodily practices in official documents addressing integrative and complementary health practices: a critical analysis. Interface (Botucatu). 2025; 29: e250036 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1590/interface.250036
Abstracts
This study analyzed the uses of the expression “bodily practices” in 13 federal and 14 state government documents addressing integrative and complementary health practices (ICHPs) in the Brazilian National Health System. The federal government publications tended to use the expression in association with traditional Chinese medicine, along with other “bodily and mental”, “body-mind” and “expressive” practices, most of which were Oriental. In the state government documents (state ICHP policies), this trend was observed together with other nomenclatures, definitions and examples, including practices not characterized as “integrative.” The results pointed to inconsistencies, with differing concepts of “physical activity”, “bodily practices” and “integrative bodily practices”, with the latter constituting a unifying proposal for bodily practices linked to ICHPs. We suggest that “integrative bodily practices” should be used as a guiding concept to promote an important, challenging and opportune reclassification of these practices in order to create greater consistency and facilitate the communication, recording, monitoring and evaluation of ICHPs and provide a reference for workers and managers.
Keywords
Complementary therapies; Integrative medicine; Brazilian National Health System; Health policy; Physical exercise
Access in: https://doi.org/10.1590/interface.250036
