ABSTRACT
Three contrasting neighbourhoods were selected from a single district in south east Brazil: a new favela (shanty town) of crowded makeshift dwellings, lacking sanitation, and built on illegally occupied land; a stable urban community; and a rural village. We aimed to identify all 7-14 year olds (compulsory school years) in these three areas from school registers. For the children on school lists, we obtained informed parental agreement to participation for 75% of the children from the favela, 67% from the stable urban community, and 95% from the rural village. Supplementary house to house searches in the favela identified relatively few additional 7-14 year olds who were not on any school list-amounting to only 16% of the favela sample and not differing significantly in social or psychiatric characteristics. The total sample of 898 participating children comprised 488 from the favela, 346 from the stable urban area, and 64 from the rural area.
