The value of questionnaires aimed at key informants, and distributed through an existing administrative system, for rapid and cost-effective health assessment.

The requirement for a careful interview set-up in the classical key-informant approach considerably limits its extension to a larger scale. However, the administration of simplified questionnaires entirely through an existing administrative system can provide an alternative approach and become a valuable tool for fast and cost-efficient community health assessment. This methodology relies on a well-structured and working administrative system, and is restricted to health problems that are well and distinctly perceived by community members. It gives mainly qualitative results, and can therefore be used to single out rapidly and inexpensively high-risk and low-risk units. The biomedical screening of a large number of negative units can thus be avoided, and available resources can be concentrated on the positive ones. An extensive validation of this "indirect" approach by standardized biomedical measurements is a crucial requirement for its usefulness. In addition to biomedical information, questionnaires also provide information on the perception and prioritization of community health problems, which is of interest for health planning.