[Communication and health: rival or parallel paradigms?].

This article recounts the evolution of communications approaches in health-related matters: 1) the approach of modernization, also known as the linear model of behaviour change; 2) the approach of dependency, also known as awareness-raising or empowerment; and 3) the approach of new development, also known as participation and co-development. Why, after the establishment and unfolding of so many programmes utilising communication for health, do social health problems persist? The article underlines a co-existence of various different and sometimes opposing, according to the school of thought, theoretical approaches. It remains that communication as a vector for behaviour change seems to carry on as the dominant theoretical axis in the health field.