Community Assessment: Guidelines for Developing Countries

The goal of this introductory text is to assist the reader in identifying causes of ill health in a community, so as to provide more effective and less costly health interventions. The text uses a qualitative community assessment approach that is based on the multidisciplinary primary health care concept. It discusses common contributors to ill health, with particular attention to commonly overlooked non-medical causes.;Topics explored include basic demographics, water and sanitation, food preparation and nutrition, community resources, health and endemic diseases, and an introduction to the growing field of Rapid Epidemiological Assessment. The text is intended for the rural health care worker who has limited resources and is too busy caring for patients to implement a rigorous epidemiological study. It is also ideal for use in community medicine courses, and for anyone who needs information about the causes of health problems in developing countries.