[Identification of problems and needs in health: description of a participative experience in primary care]

To identify health problems and needs from a Health area population. To detect inequalities in relation with sociodemographic variables.

An observational descriptive study, cross-sectional study, qualitative research.

A Health area in Cordoba divided in three different areas: residential, inner city and rural area. We select three different groups of population and the following instruments of measurements: a) general population older than 15 years old (survey by interview completed door-to-door and personally) (N = 12,801) (coverage = 96.6%); b) Representatives of the community (N = 47), by Delphi technique (answering rate = 62.5%) and Nominal Group technique applied to participants in Health Councils (answering rate = 65.4%); c) Health workers (N = 45), by Delphi Process (answering rate = 58.5%).

The people consider pains in their joints and allergies as the priority health problems, for the representatives of the community and the health workers the most important problems were dental hygiene and some chronic diseases. The needs detected as most important were, for the people from residential area, the lack of public gardens and cultural sites, for people from the inner city area it was the lack of public safety and in the rural area it was the lack of proper health resources.

Although the different groups we study maintain a close agreement on what are the most important health problems and needs, we observed several interesting disagreement that could be explained by the different point of view that each group has on the process of health-disease, on perceiving problems and needs and on the sociodemographic differences among them.