Community Health Diagnosis: Stages and Methodology
Community Health Diagnosis Process
According to Hernan San Martin, the community health diagnosis process can be identified in three stages:
- Identification of health problems, existing risks, needs expressed by community members, and available community health resources.
- Prioritization of problems and needs.
- Programming of health activities, with specific goals, to solve priority problems and real needs.
Definition of Problem and Need
Health problem and need are two closely related concepts, but they have different utilities. A health problem corresponds to a poor health status as perceived by the individual, the caregiver, or the collective. The need expresses the deviation or difference between the optimal state, as defined in regulations, and the current or real state.
Types of Needs
- Perceived Need: What the population believes they have.
- Expressed Need: Demand for services requested by the user.
- Provision Need: Defined by healthcare professionals in relation to a desirable standard.
- Comparative Need: The optimal need that an individual or group should have, given that they possess the same characteristics as other individuals or groups who need it.
Purpose of Health Diagnosis
- Orientation of health activities towards real and specific objectives.
- Possibility of evaluating results: usefulness, effectiveness, and efficiency of programs.
- Health planning and management of services or programs.
- Epidemiological research.
- Prevention.
- Public information and health education (content).
- Healthcare (both medical and nursing), guidance, plans, etc.
- Understanding how health and illness are evaluated within the community.
Methodology of Health Diagnosis: Data Collection
Qualitative Methods
Qualitative methods have the specific goal of discovering what is happening in reality, searching for meaning. The techniques used aim to collect all information carefully with slow observations, field notes, etc. The search is for qualitative meaning in the events under investigation.
Quantitative Research
Quantitative research studies are designed to capture the static structure of reality. With representation, as it fits the objectives, established protocols are used. Its purpose is to assess the hypothesis source and try to operate in controlled conditions to ensure reliability; that is, objectivity.
Instruments to Measure Health: Interview
Data collection is important to capture the views and information of individuals and community groups supposedly well-informed on major issues and needs related to population health (key informants). This consists of individual interviews with people who live, work, and/or understand the community.
Sheffield
The Sheffield method is very useful for collecting data on aspects that are not registered. It may be a personal interview, by telephone, mail, etc. Remark: It can be defined as watching people in situ, that is, in their actual context, where they usually carry out their activities, to capture those aspects that are most significant in order to investigate and collect relevant data.
Delphi Technique
The Delphi technique uses several questionnaires to ascertain the opinion of some people about the community’s problems. The main goal is to gather the views of certain experts to reach a consensus.
Nominal Group Technique
The Nominal Group Technique brings together a group of people without prior reflection on bond issues.
Brainwriting Technique
Brainwriting differs from the previous technique in that there is an entertainer who presents the problems and possible solutions.
Brainstorming Technique
Brainstorming involves the contribution of a large number of ideas by all members involved.