Community diagnosis – This book covers the entire syllabus of “Community Health Nursing” prescribed by the Universities of Bangladesh- for Basic and diploma nursing students. We tried to accommodate latest information and topics.
This book is examination friendly setup according to the teachers’ lectures and examination’s questions. At the end of the book previous university questions are given. We hope in touch with the book students’ knowledge will be upgraded and flourished. The unique way of presentation may make your reading of the book a pleasurable experience.
Community diagnosis
Community diagnosis
The diagnosis of disease in an individual patient is based on signs and symptoms. When this is applied to a community it is known as community diagnosis. The focus in community diagnosis is on identification of community health problems.
Definition of Community diagnosis
Community diagnosis may be defined as the pattern of disease in a community described in terms of the important factors which influence this pattern.
Or
Community diagnosis refers to the identification and quantification of health problems in a community in terms of mortality and morbidity rates and ratios, and identification of their correlates for the purpose of defining those individuals or groups at risk or those in need of health care.
1. Community Analysis: Community analysis is the process of examining data to define needs strengths, barriers, opportunities, readiness, and resources. The product of analysis is the “community profile”.
2. To analyze assessment data is helpful to categorize the data. This may be done as following:
- Demographic
- Environmental
- Socioeconomic
- Health resources and services
- Health policies
- Study of target groups.
3. Community is diagnosed using: Health Indicators.
The mission/goal of community diagnosis is to
- Analyze the health status of the community
- Evaluate the health resources, services, and systems of care within the community
- Assess attitudes toward community health services and issues
- Identify priorities, establish goals, and determine courses of action to improve the health status of the community
- Establish an epidemiologic baseline for measuring improvement over time.
Purposes of community diagnosis
1. to act as a data reference for the district
2. to provide an overall picture of the local community and the residents’ concerns
3. to suggest priority areas for intervention and the feasible solutions
4. to indicate the resource allocation and the direction of work plans
5. to create opportunities for intersectoral collaboration and media involvement
6. to form basis of setting indicators for HCP evaluation.
Data for community diagnosis
The community diagnosis is based on collection and interpretation of the following relevant data:
1. Age and sex composition of the population.
2. Vital statistical rates such as the birth rate, the crude death rate, the infant mortality rate, the maternal mortality rate, the child death rate, the perinatal mortality rate, the still birth rate, the neonatal death rate, the post neonatal death rate.
3. Incidence and prevalence of the important diseases in the community
The process of community diagnosis involves four stages:
1. Initiation
2. Data collection and analysis
3. Diagnosis
4. Dissemination Basic Principles of Healthy.
Initiation: In order to initiate a community diagnosis project, a dedicated committee or working group should be set up to manage and coordinate the project. The committee should invoive relevant parties such as government departments, health professionals and non- governmental organizations.
At an early stage, it is important to identify the available budget and resources to determine the scope of the diagnosis. Some of the common areas to be studied may include health status, lifestyles, living conditions, socioeconomic conditions, physical and social infrastructure, inequalities, as well as public health services and policies.
Once the scope is defined, a working schedule to conduct the community diagnosis, production and dissemination of report should be set.
Data collection and analysis: The project should collect both quantitative and qualitative data. Moreover, Population Census and statistical data e.g. population size, sex and age structure, medical services, public-health, social services, education, housing, public security and transportation, etc. can provide background of the district.
As for the community data, it can be collected by conducting surveys through self-administered questionnaires, face to face interviews, focus groups and telephone interviews. In order to ensure reliability of the findings, an experienced organization such as an academic institute can be employed for conducting the study.
The sampling method should be carefully designed and the sample size should be large enough to provide sufficient data to draw reliable conclusions. Therefore, study results derived can truly review the local community. Collected data can then be analyzed and interpreted by experts.
Here are some practical tips on data analysis and presentation:
- statistical information is best presented as rates or ratios for comparison
- trends and projections are useful for monitoring changes over a time period for future planning
- local district data can be compared with other districts or the whole population
- graphical presentation is preferred for easy understanding Basic Principles of Healthy.
Diagnosis: Diagnosis of the community is reached from conclusions drawn from the data analysis.
It should preferably comprise three areas:
- health status of the community
- determinants of health in the community
- potential for healthy city development
Dissemination: The production of the community diagnosis report is not an end in itself, efforts should be put into communication to ensure that targeted actions are taken. The target audience for the community diagnosis includes policy-makers, health professionals and the general public in the community.
The report can be disseminated through the following channels:
- presentations at meetings of the health boards and committees, or forums organised for voluntary organisations, local community groups and the general public
- press release
- thematic events (such as health fairs and other health promotion programmes.
It is important to realize that Community Diagnosisis not a one-off project, but is part of a dynamic process leading to health promotion in the community. Therefore, community diagnosis should be conducted at regular intervals to allow the HCP be continuously improved.
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