title: [Public health conceptual models and paradigms].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The epidemiological transition model proposed by Omhran at the beginning of the 1970s (decreased fecundity rate and increased life expectancy), together with modifications in lifestyles and diet, showed increased mortality due to chronically degenerative causes. This essay thus discusses and makes a comparative analysis of some currents of thought, taking as its common thread an analysis of epidemiological change identified in different eras or stages and relationships with some public health models or conceptual frameworks.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Discussing public health paradigms leads to a historical recapitulation of conceptual models ranging from magical-religious conceptions to ecological and socio-medical models. M. Susser proposed 3 eras in this discipline's evolution in his speech on the future of the epidemiology.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The epidemiological changes analysed through different approaches constitute elements of analysis that all models discussed in this essay include to delimit the contributions and variables so determining them.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigación en Salud Poblacional, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, Cuernavaca, México. chernand@insp.mx
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hernández-Girón
authors.forename: Emanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Orozco-Núñez
authors.forename: Armando
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Arredondo-López
mesh_terms: D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000453:epidemiology; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D003710:Demography / Q000639:trends; D004813:Epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008800:Mexico / Q000453:epidemiology; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011634:Public Health / Q000639:trends