Historical Evolution of the Community Concept and Its Relationship with Public Health

Authors

  • Osvaldo Méndez Díaz Instituto de Medicina Tropical “Pedro Kourí”. La Habana, Cuba. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4448-8661
  • Enrique Beldarrain Chaple Centro Nacional de Información de Ciencias Médicas, La Habana, Cuba.
  • Dennis Pérez Chacón Instituto de Medicina Tropical “Pedro Kourí”. La Habana, Cuba.

Keywords:

community, historical evolution, community concept, public health, community health.

Abstract

Introduction: The clearest origin of the term community is recorded at the end of the 19th century, in the political discourses of the time, in the work of authors such as Hegel and Marx.

Objective: To know the evolution and history of the community concept and its relationship with public health.

Methods: A bibliographic review was carried out on the term community and its approach from various angles, from ancient Greece to the present.

Results: The origin of the term “community” dates back to ancient times, when the way of grouping responded to protective measures implemented to face the threat of nature and to ensure the survival of the group through the provision of food. Community action for improving health must be generated from the community and the team towards the central-higher level instead from the classic top-down manner of health interventions from the academy or the government towards the population.

Conclusions: The concept of community, over time, has been used in most of the processes of territorial construction. Community health is a model of care that implies comprehensiveness, interdisciplinarity, intersectorality and social development.

 

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Published

2024-08-03

How to Cite

1.
Méndez Díaz O, Beldarrain Chaple E, Pérez Chacón D. Historical Evolution of the Community Concept and Its Relationship with Public Health. Rev Cubana Salud Pública [Internet]. 2024 Aug. 3 [cited 2025 Jan. 15];50. Available from: https://revsaludpublica.sld.cu/index.php/spu/article/view/16798

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