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The international movement for health promotion began in the 1980s. The I International Conference on Health Promotion, November 1986, in Ottawa, Canada, signals the historical milestone for the paradigm shift. Discussions based on the Alma-Ata Declaration on Primary Health Care in the WHO document on Health for All, as well as on the debate at the World Health Assembly, originated the "The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion"(1). According to the document: "Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health."1 Promoting health is now an obligation in the various health systems, articulated to actions that aim to respond to the diversity of social needs not dissociated from human potentialities. In the new paradigm of intervention of the health sector the approach goes beyond national considerations, appealing to the participation of actors and partnerships and the articulation between research and clinical practice. In this pact, everyone will have a role to play in disseminating reference practices - citizens, health professionals, educators, workers in the various sectors, municipalities and the Government(2). Changes in the coming years will pose challenges for all sectors of society (from education, the environment, the economy, the quality of services and skills of professionals), where policies will play an important role for their demands on health promotion(3). The research that has been done in this context highlights that the specific regional needs identified during the policy-building process reinforce the wealth of developing, in an innovative, democratic and participatory way, actions that can give meaning to health promotion. It is the example of the study that announces the sustainability of public health promotion policies, highlighting the formation of collaborative networks, as well as political and legislative consistency that allows the continuity of interventions(4). Other studies, based on review processes in the political area, state ...

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this epidemiological study was to determine the differences in the prevalence of caries between individuals with Down syndrome (DS) and their siblings. A sibling‐matched, population‐based and cross‐sectional survey was performed. This study involved 138 (62%) children with DS and 86 (38%) siblings, aged 2–26. The children were compared in different subgroups: [2, 6], [6, 12], and [13, 26]. Data was gathered through the use of a complete questionnaire and clinical observation. Data analysis was performed by using SPSS® v.18.0 software with any p value <.05 considered as significant. The DS group presented a significantly higher percentage of children within the caries‐free group: 72% versus 46% of the siblings group (p < .001). In the age gap [2, 6[the median value of DMFT was the same in both groups (p = .918). In the age gap [6, 12] the median value of DMFT in the DS group was 0 and in the siblings group was 1 (p = .004). In the age gap [13, 26] the median value of DMFT in the DS group was 0, whereas in the siblings group the median value was 3, which constitutes a significantly high difference (p = .003). The results of this study suggest that Portuguese children with DS have lower caries prevalence than their siblings.