Habitus and risk trajectories: Relevant concepts for educative communication for cancer control. The case of Patio Bonito, Bogota.

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 Introduction: In Colombia, cancer is a public health problem. Colombian National Cancer Institute has proposed a model for cancer control which includes a strategy of health communication that incorporates the concepts of habitus and risk trajectories. The objetive of this work is to validate these concepts in a vulnerable community of a sector in Patio Bonito-Bogotá.
 Materials and Methods: A phenomenological qualitative study was developed based on comprehension of social representations of health, disease and cancer, practices in health, habitus and health risks. For the study 36 workshops with the strategy of participatory research and 4 focal groups with women and teenagers, girls and boys were developed
 Results: Health and disease are conceptualized according to three approaches: curative, preventive and with lesser importance the promotional which includes social experiences productive and reproductive conditions. Multiples therapeutic itineraries were identified with different medical systems and healers. Risk was tipified as controlable and uncontrolables. Three stages for the constitution of risk trajectories were identified: experimentation, decision and prolongation. Cancer was associated to death and infected-contagious thought, looked in a curative approach. Risk cancer factors are known, but it does not generate preventive practices because they are perceived as distant to local reality.
 Conclusion: Habitus and risk trajectories are useful concepts in cancer prevention because they include local social and cultural history. In this sense, comunication education strategies for cancer risk factors control must include then within multiple intervention levels.