A Participatory Community Diagnosis of a Rural Community from the Perspective of Its Women, Leading to Proposals for Action

Abstract

In primary health care, a community diagnosis is necessary to provide a detailed description of the community as well as an evaluation of the community’s health, including the main factors responsible for it and the needs felt by the population. This article presents a community health diagnosis following a participatory design, taking the perspective of women living in the community, to identify proposals for action. An ethnographic study was carried out in the community of Mañaria (Spain), using semi-structured interviews, in-depth interviews, key informants, participant observation, desk review, and photography. A sample of 21 women were interviewed until reaching saturation of the information. This information was complemented by that provided by five key informants. Data analysis included text analysis, coding, and categorization. Preliminary results were presented to the informants for validation and further refinement, and proposals for action were identified and followed up. Six categories were identified, representing different areas of intervention: population, jobs and economy, public and private spaces, lifestyles, processes of socialization, and health care assets. For each of these areas, the main problems were identified, as were the health care assets and proposals for action. The community diagnosis has been shown to be useful not only to identify health needs but also as an efficacious instrument to trigger social and public health actions that may be undertaken at the institutional level.