[Rational structures in health education models: basics and systematization]

The different Health Education (HE) models appeared in the scientific literature are analyzed, trying to eliminate the confusion produced by its great diversity, applying a general and systematic point of view. Due to the relevance of that topic in the activities of Health Promotion in Primary Health Care it is urgent a deep reappraisal due the heterogeneity of scientific papers dealing with that topic. The curriculum, as the confluence of thought and action in Health Education, is the basic concept thanks to which it is possible to integrate both scientific logic, the biological one and that pertaining to the social sciences. Of particular importance have been the different paradigms that have emerged in the field of HE from the beginning of the present century: a first generation with a "normative" point of view, a second one orientated from positivistic bases, and a third generation adopting an hermeneutic and critic nature. This third generation of paradigms in HE has taken distances from the behaviouristic and cognitive perspectives being more critical and participative. The principal scientific contributors in the field of HE, internationals as well as spaniards are studied and classified. The main conclusions obtained from this Health Education paradigm controversy are referred to both aspects: 1) planning, programming and evaluating activities, and 2) models, qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Emphasis is given to the need of including Community Participation in all phases of the process in critic methodologies of HE. It is postulated the critic paradigm as the only one able to integrate the rest of the scientific approaches in Health Education.