Contributions to the literature on violence and health in 25 years of the Brazilian public health Ciência & Saúde Coletiva

Abstract

The authors conducted a literature review on the theme of violence and health published in the Brazilian public health journal “Ciência & Saúde Coletiva” (C&SC) from 1996 to 2019. The search also included two other Brazilian journals, “Cadernos de Saúde Pública” (CSP) and “Revista de Saúde Pública” (RSP) and two international journals, the “American Journal of Public Health” (AJPH) and the “Pan American Journal of Public Health” (PAJPH), totaling 1,179 articles. The analysis aggregated each journal’s material in ele-ven themes, based on conceptual affinity. For the articles from C&SC, the authors analyzed variables such as year of publication, area of knowledge, institution’s region, study scope, methodology, and target population. The analysis found that C&SC gave visibility to violence and health, standing out from the other journals since 2009. External cau-ses, children and adolescents, quantitative studies, municipal and national scope, and institutions located in the Southeast region of Brazil predomi-nated. There are gaps in topics such as self-mu-tilation and vulnerable populations, among other areas where more studies and publications should be encouraged.