Sentinel areas: a monitoring strategy in public health

Abstract

Available techniques for monitoring the health situation have proven insufficient, thus leading to a discussion of the need for their improvement based on new data collection

Prevalence of diarrheagenic Escherichia coli in children with diarrhea in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

“…Study population -As part of an ongoing study to evaluate the health impacts of recently implemented basic sanitation (Bahia Azul Program), a sample of 1233 preschool children from diverse areas of Salvador (Teixeira et al 2002) were monitored for 66 weeks (October 30, 2000to January 31, 2002. The overall study has been described elsewhere (Barreto, unpublished observations, Strina et al 2003).…”

Risk factors for infection with Giardia duodenalis in pre-school children in the city of Salvador, Brazil

“…The sample had originally been selected for a wider longitudinal study of the health impact of sanitation. The sampling has been described in detail elsewhere [16]. First, 30 neighbourhoods were selected, using stratified random sampling to represent the range of environmental conditions found throughout the city.…”

Epidemiologists working together with anthropologists: lessons from a study to evaluate the epidemiological impact of a city-wide sanitation program

“…The study setting, for which details have been given elsewhere 25,26,27,28,29 , consisted of 30 "sentinel areas", i.e., aggregates of census tracts randomly selected in different districts of the city. Three of them were located in a high living standard district, with a long-established sewage system, thus serving as the benchmark for the environmental and health factors to be monitored; three were located in a district with intermediate living conditions, in which the sewage system had been recently been established; and the remaining 24 were located in eight districts that were among the poorest in the city and lacked sewage systems at the time of this study but would get them during the execution of the Program (Table 1).…”