Concepto de riesco: (dis)continuidades entre corrientes epidemiológicas

Abstract

In the present study we analyze if the risk concept of the hegemonic epidemiology changes its nature in purportedly alternative currents as ecoepidemiology and social epidemiology focused in multilevel analysis.We analyze the way this concept is distinguished in every current and its relationship with other epidemiologic key notions as cause. We find that the risk concept and the notion of cause remain relatively unchanged among the different currents even when there is some theoretical discussion about the complexity of multilevel systems and other explanations for the events. Finally we discuss some consequences about the appropriation of the risk concept in multiple interventions in the health field. We indicate that the fragmented nature of the risk concept is problematic because it can make the social aspects of the disease considered only in a functional perspective. Alternatively to that we develop the vulnerability concept as a knowledge framed in a hermeneutical perspective. The vulnerability concept acts as a mediator knowledge between epidemiology and the interventions in the health field. In the same way we point out some concerns from the anthropological field about the simplification of social senses and omission of meanings about the health of the communities.

Keywords

• Risk
• Natural History of Diseases
• Epidemiology
• Knowledge