Development of rapid epidemiologic assessment methods to evaluate health status and delivery of health services.

This paper describes the evolution of the concept of rapid epidemiologic assessment (REA) from a series of ideas to a defined area of epidemiologic research. Five broad areas of research are defined: small area survey and sampling methods, surveillance methods, screening and individual risk assessment, community indicators of risk or health status, and case-control methods for evaluation. REA techniques can provide health information more rapidly, simply and at less cost than the standard data collection methods and yet still yield reliable results. The use of these methods is described with examples from both a research programme designed to stimulate the development of REA methods and from other studies in the literature. The further development of REA techniques can lead to better decisions regarding the delivery and allocation of health services in both developing and industrialized countries.