Sobre la definición de salud

Abstract

Much has been written about WHO’s definition of health that continues to be a benchmark with its positive and negative aspects. The reason for the present reflection is that we have not found any references or references to the framework in which that definition was published, which is the Preamble to the WHO Constitution, which consists of nine principles. It is striking that no mention has been made of the other eight. The first principle, the definition that became known, responds to the paradigm of positivism that sought a univocal and objective definition of health, coinciding with the thinking that can be identified with the Hegemonic Medical Model.We postulate that a univocal and objective definition is something unattainable and does not conform to humanity, the other eight principles introduce the ethical, political and economic dimensions that we believe medicine must recover.The Quaternary Prevention is a political and scientific movement that claims the recovery of these aspects in the practice of medicine so we have tried other definitions of health according to this perspective. This new view on medicine includes humanization, the context of uncertainty, fallibility and incorporates the political, economic and social aspects that are an inalienable part of medicine.