[Health promotion: the evolution of a paradigm and contemporary challenges]

The public health movement and the subsequent changes accompanying it have changed the way problems affecting populations' is understood and/or addressed within their contexts. This article aimed to analyze health promotion contemporaneity, examining its evolution as a discipline and the current challenges it faces. The evolution of health promotion led to consolidating a set of principles, such as those concerned with socio-ecological and salutogenic perspectives, a holistic, multi-sector approach, a concern for sustainable development, a commitment to social justice and equity, a participatory approach to individual and community capacity-building and respect and sensitivity regarding cultural diversity. The limitations of traditional models of research, a concern for social inequality regarding health and new global health challenges have raised the need for more comprehensive perspectives concerning research and intervention. Several research approaches' complementarity has been evaluated to better understand the processes and factors underlying complex health issues (i.e. quantitative and qualitative studies and community-based participatory research). Such knowledge fuels the planning of policy and interventions tailored to population needs which have been adopted in a collaborative, multi-sector approach and which are more effective in addressing global health's fresh challenges. Health promotion (as a dynamic discipline) has evolved in response to health issues arising in today's globalized world; yet developing its fields of theory, research and action is a continuing need.