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Community Health Assessment Projects

According to the World Health Organization, research and development to determine the health status of groups of people can lead to enhanced health and development in communities. Some governing bodies, such as the WHO, publish statistics to give an idea about which groups are at a higher risk of morbidity or death from certain conditions. Individualizing assessments for smaller areas can give a portrait of which communities are most at need for health interventions.

  1. Deaths during Childbirth and Pregnancy

    • Investigating survival rates during childhood and pregnancy uses a vulnerable population to demonstrate which communities are especially in need of health interventions. USAID reports that about 600,000 women die from complications of childbirth or pregnancy each year, most of which could be prevented with health care and information within communities. Controlled research is one approach to understanding health trends in a community. A study looking at maternal mortality can exclude select groups of people, such as mothers who were under or over a certain age and only include women in a certain community. When statitisicans analyze the data for trends, they are able to see which communities are most at risk and agencies can then use that information to focus health resources toward those groups.

    Analyzing Social Factors

    • Social factors that make people more vulnerable to illness and malnutrition are broad and common. Assessing access to health insurance, rates of poverty, pollution, mental health, unemployment, access to health care, health education and substance abuse are valuable markers to understand whether good health care is available to a community. Each can be researched by checking with community health departments or observing or surveying communities.

    Water Safety Assesment

    • Analyzing community health means looking at the quality of water. The WHO estimates that millions of lives could be saved if safe water was provided globallly. No community can thrive if they are taking their water from unpurified sources that may contain unsafe levels of arsenic and flouride, putting them at increased risk. How close and how clean water is and whether regulating bodies exist for water safety, and there are signs of causes of death related to water safety are important considerations. If contamination is determined, water safety improvement plans, such as water purification or general hygiene, can be implemented.

    Food Security Assessment

    • Food security is defined by USAID as the ability to have access to sufficient food to meet dietary needs to lead a healthy and productive life. Many communities do not have access to enough nourishing food, often because they are impoverished or do not have community food resources available. The Community Food Service Coalition says that an assessment should include inventory of food resources along with hunger and nutrition status, a policy that helps make nutrition more accessible.

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