Introduction:

health, as a goal to be achieved, has been conceptualized in terms of different countries, socio-historical contexts and moments, economic conditions and criteria of organizations and authors.

Objective:

to establish a consensus in line with the current state of the art, based on the most widespread and accepted health concepts.

Methods:

an analysis of different published articles, journals and books related to the topic was carried out, in addition to a review of printed literature and an Internet search using Google and Infomed. The review process lasted from October 2019 to January 2020. Each concept was analyzed and authors' experiences in different moments of their personal and professional lives, inside and outside the country, were taken into account.

Conclusions:

shortcomings of each enunciated concept were demonstrated in this research. After its evaluation, a health concept was proposed for Cuban standards related to the current reality and the Integrated Health System (without limiting its application outside the country's borders).