RESUMO
The article analyzes the importance of the concept of epidemic constitution, whose presence has been recurrently identified in Hippocratic thinking throughout the history of epidemiology. In general terms, constitution relates epidemics to geographic and atmospheric conditions. The outstanding point in the article is the view of epidemics as phenomena associated to disruption in the harmony of nature, here understood as a whole beyond geographic dimensions. The permanence of Hippocratic thinking does not imply continuity. The concept of epidemic constitution has been discontinuous and structurally different throughout history. The power of the concept lies on its philosophical foundations: physis. Pre-Socratic ideas gain special significance for the understanding of the crisis of modern times and introduces new elements for the interpretation and conceptualization of constitution in epidemiology.
Assuntos
Estudos Epidemiológicos , Epidemiologia/história , Filosofia/história , Grécia/epidemiologia , História do Século XX , História Antiga , História Pré-Moderna 1451-1600RESUMO
This study provides an interpretation of the concept of space in epidemiology. The authors highlight that the epistemological orientation of the space concept in epidemiology is the theory of disease, emphasizing the importance of the concept of specific etiologic agents and their transmission as the central structure for grasping the relationship between space and the body. Characterization of the space for circulation of etiologic agents was the epistemological base shaping the use of various theoretical developments in geography, allowing for the construction of different explanatory watersheds in the concept of space. The article specifically analyzes the Latin American watershed, reviewing the main authors orienting these studies, like Pavlovsky, Max Sorre, and Samuel Pessoa. The authors highlight Milton Santos' thinking as a fundamental reference in recent research on the social organization of space and disease emergence or prevalence. The authors also approach contemporary changes in the understanding of space as they are reflected in epidemiological studies.
Assuntos
Epidemiologia , Conhecimento , Brasil/epidemiologia , Doenças Transmissíveis/epidemiologia , Epidemiologia/história , História do Século XIX , História do Século XX , Humanos , Espaço Pessoal , Características de Residência , Topografia MédicaRESUMO
In this article the author presents a point of view which she considers central to understanding the difference between prevention - associated with the traditional discourse of public health - and health promotion, an idea in connection with which proposals are now being presented for rethinking and redirecting public health practices. This perspective relates to the limits of the health and disease concepts in relation to the concrete experiences of health and illness. On the one hand, practical awareness of this limit implies far-reaching changes in the way scientific knowledge is related to (and used in) the formulation and organization of health practices; on the other, health promotion projects also avail themselves of the concepts guiding the discourse of prevention. This leads to certain difficulties that appear as inconsistencies or gray areas in the operationalization of promotion projects, which do not always succeed in asserting their nature as distinct from traditional preventive practices.
Assuntos
Epidemiologia , Promoção da Saúde , Medicina Preventiva , Saúde Pública , Humanos , Terminologia como AssuntoRESUMO
The article contextualizes the various discourses that have sought to explain epidemics through the elaboration of different notions, concepts, and theories. It describes the circumstances under which these discourses appeared and were transformed and ties them in to each era's universe of knowledge. It analyzes (1) the perceptions of contagion and miasma that linked the spreading of epidemics to the senses of touch and smell; (2) the theory of epidemic constitution--a re-reading of the Hippocratic tradition; and (3) Fracastoro's 16th century theory of contagion. Special attention is devoted to elaboration of the concept of transmission in conjunction with the emergence of modern medicine during the 19th century and to the discontinuity occasioned by a new perception of how epidemic diseases spread.
Assuntos
Causalidade , Surtos de Doenças/história , Epidemiologia/história , Filosofia Médica/história , História Antiga , História Pré-Moderna 1451-1600 , História Medieval , História Moderna 1601-RESUMO
The foundations on which the concept of risk has been constructed are discussed. A description of Rubin's model of causal inference, which was first developed in the domain of applied statistics, and later incorporated into a branch of epidemiology, is taken as the starting point. Analysis of the premisses of causal inference brings to light the logical stages in the construction of the concept of risk, allowing it to be understood "from the inside". The abovementioned branch of statistics and epidemiology seeks to demonstrate that statistics can infer causality instead of simply revealing statistical associations; the model gives the basis for estimating that which way be defined as the effect of a cause. Using this procedural distinction between causal inference and association, the model also seeks to differentiate between the epidemiologial dimension of concepts and the merely statistical dimension. This leads to greater complexity when handing the concepts of interation and coofounding. The redective aspects inherent in this methodological construction of risk are here high lighted. Thus, whether applied to individual or populational inferences, this methodological construction imposes limits that need to be taken into account in its theoretical and practical application to epidemiology.