The field of studies on the black population health in Brazil: a systematic review of the last three decades

Abstract

Black population health (BPH) can be understood, at the same time, as a field of study, of social intervention, and of cultural domain. This complex sphere of knowledge and practice emerged from the demands of social movements, especially those of black women, to face concrete public health problems. As a field of study, scientific production in Brazil is still incipient. Given this context, we conducted this investigation to demonstrate how the production on BPH has been structured in Brazil in the last three decades. This is an integrative systematic review that aims to synthesize and analyze the scientific knowledge already produced on this topic. We selected 400 works among articles, theses, and dissertations published between 1998 and 2020 and analyzed the evolution of the production volume, its locus (states, institutions, scientific areas, and territorial scope of the studies), themes and methodologies, as well as some of these intercrossing. As a result, we found a notable increase in the research volume in recent years, in an interdisciplinary field with wide thematic diversity in relation to pioneer studies. This evolution may point to a process of consolidation of the field of studies on health and race in Brazil, even if the signs presented are ambiguous.

Keywords:
Black Population Health; Social Determinants of Health; Racism; Public Health; Group with Ancestors from the African Continent