“Health needs:” reflections on the (in)definition of a concept

Abstract

Defining a concept of health needs is essential for establishing limits to medical and sanitary interventions, whether at an individual or collective level. Like many expressions in current technical use, the meanings attributed to the expression “health needs” vary considerably. Thus, this work was driven by the hypothesis that the specialized literature lacks rigor in the definition and use of the term, posing an ethical and political problem for it can reverberate in issues such as resource allocation and in the definition of strategies and actions of a therapeutic project. To this end, articles published in the BVS and Pubmed databases in Portuguese, Spanish, and English, with the descriptors determinação de necessidades de cuidados de saúde, evaluacíon de necessidades, and needs assessment were submitted to thematic analysis. The results indicate that reflections on the concept of “health needs” are scarce in the literature. Moreover, the studies addressing the concept show a lack of conceptual definition, denoting a lack of uniformity in the theoretical understanding about this expression. The absence of a strictu sensu concept and the complexity of the factors involving the descriptor results in a diffuse use, with incipient problematization and, at times, convenient for the context used.