Participation in health and COVID-19: international studies on Pandemic response and reflections on the brazilian context

Abstract

Participation in health encourages preventive behaviors that contribute to the proper functioning of health systems. The Covid-19 pandemic has made the importance of such strategy explicit by determining adherence to preventive practices, including social distancing. The present study discusses the frameworks used by scientific publications that addressed the practices of participation in health during the pandemic in different countries. To this end, they used a database of a bibliometric review of the literature, in addition to a complementary narrative review with articles that connected participation in health and Covid-19. The VOSviewer software was used to organize the material. The studies show how important participation in health is for the resilience of health systems in times of epidemics and disasters. In the pandemic, we see the integration of participation in health in the process of guaranteeing the functioning of services, the adherence to isolation and vaccination recommendations, encouraging volunteering, designing public transportation policies, designing research, and educating health professionals. Other works demonstrate the social inequalities in terms of access to health care, especially for the Black and elderly population, and, on the other hand, the action of community leaders and institutional arrangements, such as the National Health Council in Brazil, which were essential to ensure equity in health. The importance of participation in health to face crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic is undisputed, leading to the conclusion that it should be more fostered to guarantee Health Sovereignty.