The ambiguity and polysemy of the concept of sustainability is a problem often faced by researchers. The existence of definitions that are not operative, diverse and sometimes contradictory represents a difficulty for the election of a suitable concept of sustainability. Even most of the research works whose title includes the term sustainability do not define what it is, which eventually, constitutes a methodological error.This leads the researchers to avoid defining sustainability, or to study it indirectly through the study of social and ecological variables of certain systems. The present work analysed the meanings conveyed by the concept of sustainability according to researchers. The uses that researchers make of the term sustainability were employed to reveal such meanings. Four uses were identified, which allowed the identification of four meanings of the concept of sustainability. This concluded that the meanings of the concept of sustainability are neither many nor as ambiguous as other authors point out, and that this classification of uses and meanings could be employed to avoid frequent errors made by researchers.

For any transition towards sustainability to be successful, it is necessary to understand the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) – related to sustainability – in different populations. A systematic review was conducted to identify and analyse KAP studies on sustainability that were reported in the scientific literature during the period of 1990–2016. Ten studies were found, of which half were conducted among populations in educational environments, i.e., teachers, students and graduates. The KAP results vary among the studies; however, there is a general tendency to investigate aspects related to ecosystems, natural resources, environmental protection and conservation. The present study concludes that it is necessary to conduct KAP studies that include categories that reflect on the wide range of meanings of sustainability and the attitudes and practices that would arise from such perspectives. This finding also reveals dimensions of sustainability usually omitted by KAP studies of sustainability.

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PurposeThe objective of this study was to build and validate a scale to analyze the knowledge, attitudes and practices on the sustainability of university students.Design/methodology/approachPsychometric validation was carried out using the criteria of internal consistency, reliability, discriminant power, content validity and predictive validity.FindingsThe KAP scale designed in this study demonstrated excellent psychometric properties and is apt for evaluating knowledge, attitudes and practices in university students.Originality/valueTransitions toward sustainability require changes in knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) related to sustainability, making it necessary to have tools that support educational interventions for sustainability that tend toward a generation of changes in the decisions and behavior of people. In that sense, a KAP scale can be a useful tool to support these interventions. However, studies that use validated scales are scarce.

Objetivo: Describir el perfil de publicaciones en malaria asociada al embarazo en el ámbito mundial, con base en los países, tipos y años de estudio, 1925-2018. Metodología: Revisión sistemática de la literatura, mediante el seguimiento de la guía prisma y garantizando la reproducibilidad del protocolo de selección y extracción de variables. Se aplicaron doce estrategias de búsqueda en PubMed, Science Direct, SciELO y Google Scholar. Se realizó síntesis cualitativa mediante frecuencias para el país, año de estudio y tipología de investigación. Resultados: Se tamizaron 3362 publicaciones, de las cuales 617 cumplieron el protocolo. El 81,5 % fueron de África, 9,9 % de Asia y 5,3 % de América. La mayor proporción de publicaciones fue posterior al 2009. El 65,8 % fueron estudios observacionales; el 22,0 %, ensayos clínicos, y los estudios cualitativos, de evaluación económica o evaluación de programas y políticas, fueron menores al 5 %. No se hallaron estudios de pruebas diagnósticas, evaluación de programas o investigaciones cualitativas en América. Conclusión: El perfil de publicaciones evidencia el predominio de la investigación epidemiológica tradicional-positivista y su concentración en África, lo que implica retos para las agendas sanitarias y de investigación en salud pública, pero con mayor necesidad en América.

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The concept of health is a social construction defined by the historical-cultural contexts of societies. At the moment, this context is characterized by global challenges such as climate change, energy crisis, the north-south divide, and poverty, among others. In view of these challenges, sustainable development has emerged as a proposal to cope with these drawbacks of the Western development model. In this sense, it is plausible to suppose, in accordance with a new global scenario of sustainable development, that a new conception of health is also emerging. For that reason, this paper aims at identifying this renewed concept of health, together with related concepts which are mentioned in the official documents on sustainable development originated in the world summits. Despite the fact that the concepts of health and sustainable development have been understood as being equivalent, none of the aforementioned official documents has provided societies with an explicit concept of health. It was verified that the concept of health has been associated with that of need satisfaction and preservation of ecosystems, whereas the construct of illness is associated with the concepts of poverty and high consumption levels. Finally, it is concluded that health is an intermediate goal of sustainable development and not an end in itself. Keywords: Sustainable Development; Health; Poverty; Social Welfare; Consumption Levels; Ecosystem. Leonardo Alberto Ríos-Osorio ResumenEl concepto de salud es una construcción social definida por los contextos histórico-culturales de las sociedades. Actualmente, dicho contexto está caracterizado por problemas como el cambio climático, la crisis energética, los desequilibrios norte-sur, y la pobreza, entre otros, que llevaron al surgimiento del desarrollo sostenible como una propuesta para afrontar estos defectos del modelo de desarrollo occidental. En ese sentido, es plausible suponer que en el marco de este escenario global con el surgimiento del desarrollo sostenible también esté emergiendo una nueva concepción de la salud. Por esa razón, en este trabajo nos propusimos identificar el concepto de salud, y los conceptos asociados a ésta, que se encuentran en los documentos oficiales del desarrollo sostenible que han surgido en las diferentes cumbres mundiales. Aunque se pudo inferir que los conceptos de salud y desarrollo sostenible son equivalentes, en ninguno de estos documentos se encontró un concepto explícito de salud. Así mismo, se observó que el concepto de salud está asociado con el de satisfacción de necesidades y cuidado de los ecosistemas, mientras que el de enfermedad está asociado a los conceptos de pobreza y elevados niveles de consumo. Finalmente, se concluye que la salud es un objetivo intermedio del desarrollo sostenible y no un fin en sí mismo.

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