Public health research: between science and action?

• Autor(a) principal: Pouvourville, Gérard de
• Data de Publicação: 1999
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Cadernos de Saúde Pública
• Texto Completo: https://cadernos.ensp.fiocruz.br/ojs/index.php/csp/article/view/1217
• topic: Epistemology; Health Policy; Public Health

In this text, we first propose a concept of public health research as a multidisciplinary endeavor whose aim is to identify the main determinants of people's health status, analyzed at the collective level. The public's health is thus envisioned as a socially determined reality, in which risk factors include biological phenomena as well as a given community's social and economic environment. Second, we argue that public health research should be applicable research, i.e. that it should be useful to decision-makers. But since the relationship between science and action is conflicting, it is necessary to invent mediatory practices to facilitate interaction between researchers and decision-makers.