Base teórica en una muestra de investigaciones de la Facultad Nacional de Salud Pública-Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia 1965-2004

objective: to provide evidence about the theoretical basis used in the studies carried out by students and lecturers of the undergraduate and postgraduate programs of the national school of public health "hector abad gómez" of the university of antioquia from 1965 to 2004. methods: an exploratory and descriptive study of a sample of research reports taken from a universe of 1 100 reports was carried out. a questionnaire was designed and tested, which was used to evaluate 190 research reports, in terms of the theories and models used as theoretical framework of these studies. results: most of the studies were carried out during the last 15 years. 51% of the studies were carried out by students of the specialization programs, 35% by undergraduate students, and 13% by the master degree students. the most predominant topics were: health management, 41%; epidemiology, 24%, and occupational health 21%. 21% of the research reports contain a theoretical basis or model, but only 2% includes a rigorous presentation of them in the theoretical framework and the discussion sections. conclusions: most of the studies were accomplished from 1990 to 2004, which is related to the greater offer of undergraduate and postgraduate programs. application of theories and models as the basis for building and guiding research has been limited, lower than it would be expected.