Resumo

RAMIS ANDALIA, Rina M. Once again, moving from the old to the new epidemiology. Rev Cubana Salud Pública [online]. 2011, vol.37, n.4, pp. 482-488. ISSN 0864-3466.

The new generations of epidemiologists have taken too much time in fully understanding Najera´s words: "we are still tied to the Newton´s approach. This is the reason why we are still thinking of the causes of diseases in terms of one, two or a few factors all the most". It is necessary to make efforts to change our minds. This article described the linear causality models that are yet valid in most of the epidemiological studies, and made suggestions to accept the new challenge of non-linear causality. It is interesting and necessary to wonder if the epidemiologists will adapt to express themselves in a predominantly qualitative language, if they will manage to state the population´s health-disease problems without statistics or if the general tendency will be developing a new form of quantitative epidemiology based on theories rather than on the new complexity theories where the qualitative nature predominates. Acting in line with the complexity thinking is a real challenge for the positivist mathematician-statistician paradigm that has so far prevailed in the field of Classical Epidemiology.

Palavras-chave : Classical Epidemiology; new epidemiology; the theory of complexity.

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