[What is health?]

After reviewing and analyzing different definitions of what health is, the authors designed a transversal descriptive study whose objective was to discover the meaning of health in 13 different community collectives and to identify the socio-cultural factors which determine health. Study subjects were asked to define health with key words. These key words were grouped by category and the authors analyzed the ten most repeated words each collective in this study named. The authors studied 1167 subjects and obtained 3624 words which were grouped into ten categories. Study results show that health professionals and students have a learned and distinct concept of health, linked to an differentiated educational, professional focus while the remaining health groups relate to key words connected to the degree of satisfaction for their prioritized necessities which vary according to the age, sex and circumstances each person has.