Dar es Salaam Urban Cohort Study was initiated in 2011 to establish and maintain a Demographic Surveillance System (DSS) that will monitor health and socio-demographic events over time in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The platform was developed in partnership between the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences. The surveillance site covers a population of approximately 100,000 residents living in close to 20,000 households in the Ukonga and Gongo la Mboto wards of Ilala district in Dar es Salaam.
Each household is visited two times per year to collect updated information, including births, deaths, marriages, migration, water supply and sanitation, socioeconomic status, and food insecurity at the household level. Census methodology is being used with an additional tracking of residents for migratory patterns, environmental exposures, vital events, disease trends and outcomes of health interventions. This uniquely designed urban surveillance site serves as a platform for tracking the burden of disease and risk actors, evaluating the effectiveness of interventions, and for training researchers and service providers in communicable and non-communicable diseases.