Community diagnosis: its uses in the training of community health workers and in primary health care in East Africa.

Over the last 20 years, medical schools in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania have been developing teaching programs in community health which have placed increasing emphasis on community diagnosis. This process, which involves students, health workers and the community, is a team effort to obtain a wide variety of information using epidemiologic methods and to establish priorities for health action. The programs which are developed following community diagnosis often rely on primary health workers and small health centers for their execution. Experience in community diagnosis is an important element in the training of health workers. Such experience is also an excellent means of teaching the management skills that are essential for operating primary health care programs. This paper traces the evolution of the methods of community diagnosis used in East Africa.