Resumo

SALAS-ZAPATA, Walter; RIOS-OSORIO, Leonardo; GOMEZ-ARIAS, Rubén Darío  e  ALVAREZ-DEL CASTILLO, Xavier. Paradigms in the analysis of public health policies: limitations and challenges. Rev Panam Salud Publica [online]. 2012, vol.32, n.1, pp. 77-81. ISSN 1020-4989.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1020-49892012000700012.

Research on health policies is considered essential to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of public policies. Analyses of public health policies have various objectives, including helping to solve the problems for which the policy was originated. That objective faces two large obstacles: (1) the ambiguity and heterogeneity of the models applied for the analysis of public policies, conditions that hinder the selection of analytical methods and the assessment of the scope of the objective; and (2) the traditional methodological approaches that limit the capacity of analyses to help solve the problems detected. This paper reviews the epistemology of the predominant models of public health policy analysis in order to assess their scope and limitations. It concludes that the development of new conceptual approaches could improve the quality of research on public policies and their ability to favorably impact decisions.

Palavras-chave : health public policy; knowledge management.