CHANGES AND HEALTH

The basic concept of this article is the need to adapt the health syst ems to demographic and epidemiologic changes, considering that, at the present time the principal health problem of the world is adult healt h: non transmissible chronic diseases and accidents. As in the previou s epidemiological cycle, when maternal and child health problems predo minated, the aim must be put in health promotion and prevention, encou raging behavioral changes that decrease or avoid risk factors. The bas ic tools to incite the change are social communication, the introducti on of health educational contents in formal education and the global r eorientation of health systems from a predominance of curative actions towards preventive actions. At the present time, the analysis and deb ate of this topic has allowed the creation of multidisciplinary teams, integrated by epidemiologists, economists and sociologists, that will have to stratify the problems according to the needs and resources of a developing world. In Chile, a project searching for equity in the 3 5 poorest and postoponed communities in the whole country is in operat ion. The most important result of this exercise has been the resemblan ce between the opinions of the community and of the public health spec ialists, which greatly helps the search for solutions.