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Since 1989, the public health education section of the University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil, has been using the focus group technique to identify educational problems and evaluate programs being developed. The focus group is a research technique that allows qualitative data to be collected through group sessions involving 6 to 15 persons with some shared trait (for example, sex, age, occupation, role in the community). The group discusses various aspects of a specified subject. This paper describes five research projects in which this technique was used. The projects were carried out by professors in the School of Public Health/USP in the state of São Paulo between 1989 and 1992 with population groups and in health institutions. These experiences showed that the technique is efficient, permitting rapid identification and in-depth analysis of problems from the point of view of the population. Among the drawbacks to the technique is that it uses a small and nonrandom sample, which means that in certain cases focus groups should be considered a complement to quantitative studies. The data described here provide knowledge of perceptions, ideas, opinions, expectations, and social images-in short, the cultural and verbal universe of the population. With this information, educators and administrators can plan and evaluate education programs on the basis of the needs and views of the people they serve, putting into practice the plan to make education more democratic and responsive to the needs of its public.

The reorganization of the Brazilian health system in the last few years has been based on the decentralization of the services and the integration of preventive and curative medicine, then creating new needs in term of the health information needed for health planning. The planning and administration of a regionalized and integrated health system calls for information about the population's morbidity profile, and the description of the pattern of the utilization of the health services, which can be obtained by means of household health surveys. The methodology utilized in a household health survey carried out in the Metropolitan Area of S. Paulo, Brazil, from July 1989 to June 1990, is described. This survey has some distinct methodological characteristics, such as the sampling process that defined the domains by age and sex, allowing an analysis of populational groups less well represented in the general population, as that of less than one year of age and that of aged people, as well as the use of the results of the latest Brazilian Census in 1991 for adjusting the sample.

The authors discuss the usefulness of giving to the students of the Department of Pediatrics of the University of São Paulo instructions regarding the educational objectives of the graduation course. An inquiry was carried out with the collaboration of: 1) members of the Departmental Council and of the Commission for Graduation; 2) teachers responsible for the course, and 3) the students. Only 32.9% of the consulted students affirmed that the knowledge of educational objectives had a positive influence on their study.

The results of a research project carried out along with head-physicians of the Municipal Health Services (PAMs) of the city of S. Paulo in order to survey their knowledge, expectations and willingness to participate in and incentivate educational programs in the various PAMs, are reported on. An open-ended questionnaire was answered by 88.6% of the head-physicians. Results showed that the concept of health of the majority of the PAMs' head-physicians (66.3%) was coincidental with that adopted by the WHO. Only 2.9% considered that health is related to quality of life. Health education was seen as the provision of information by 70.0%; only 6.7% recognized their responsibility for the process of social and health change. According to 68.2% of them, health actions were acknowledged to be useful tools for making the users aware of the importance of having the diseases treated. Health actions, their planning, implementation and evaluation were considered to be the responsibility of all who work at the PAMs, but mainly of nurses, social workers and the health educator. Some difficulties in implementing educational activities were indicated; among them being lack of sufficient material and adequate space for their implementation, lack of professional Public Health Educators and, mainly, a lack of motivation on the part of both staff and population. The majority of the head-physicians recognized that educational activities are important, that they are carried out at least by part of their staffs, although frequently hampered by technical and operational difficulties.