[The practical applicability of empowerment in health promotion strategies]

The scope of this study is to identify what empowerment strategies were addressed for the promotion of health in health research, characterizing them from a socio-critical and post-structuralist standpoint. It involved an Integrative Review conducted in May 2011 of the Medline, Lilacs and SciELO databases. The inclusion criteria were complete research articles, case reports or experience reports, published between 2002 and 2011 in Portuguese, Spanish and English. The research criteria included the key words "empowerment" and "health promotion" (DeCS/BIREME). Twenty articles, which presented strategies of individual and/or social empowerment that were characterized by a socio-critical perspective, were selected. It is considered that some activities, mainly those that included thematic discussion groups, represented a mobilization and empowerment strategy. These included theater, culture circles, community therapy, therapeutic learning workshops, home visits, university extension and social action projects. It is considered that all empowerment strategies are inherently health promotion strategies, but not all health promotion strategies effectively result in empowerment.