Resumen

ROMAN HERNANDEZ, Jorge Juan. The pandemic and people: the key is in the risk. Rev Cubana Hig Epidemiol [online]. 2020, vol.57  Epub 01-Sep-2021. ISSN 1561-3003.

The current work highlights the importance of psychology in health prevention. The concepts of risk factor, risk and risk perception are analyzed. Traditional academic epidemiology defines risk as the probability of an event capable of producing damage or a disease, and it operationally uses diverse statistical variables. The article proposes to investigate the psychological content of the risk, which integrates hazardous conditions, objective and subjective resources, as well as expectations of the probabilities of the risk´s effects, all of which determine the behavior of the subject. It is considered that only a theoretical approach that includes subjective processes is able to investigate the motivational dynamics of preventive behavior. The preventive strategy applied in Cuba in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic is used to support the stated ideas.

Palabras clave : risk; risk factors; perception; coronavirus; disease prevention.

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