Development of Community Needs Assessment
Asian, young, Manhattan
Students will develop a community need assessment plan that addresses an underserved population’s selected public health problem. As a public health leader, you need to complete each step efficiently to produce an accurate assessment of the community’s health needs. The starting point of a community health needs assessment is to know why you are conducting the assessment and how you will use the assessment results. Once you thoroughly understand the purpose of a community health needs assessment, you will conduct the assessment and utilize its results more efficiently and fruitfully. For this Assignment, students will do the following: Describe your community and a population within the community; Describe the specific population (e.g., the elderly, African-American adolescents) within the community that you will use to conduct the community health needs assessment; The background and history of the chosen population; The rationale behind selecting this particular population; A description of the population’s socioeconomic factors; A description of health equity or health disparity issues impacting the selected population; and Built environment barriers or strengths. Students will explain their understanding based on the resources and apply it to your chosen community. Students will Explain three overarching goals for your community health needs assessment.
Sample Paper
Community Description
The African American population has continued to grow steadily in the United States. By 2019 it was estimated that at least 46.8 million people identified as African Americans, which contributed to 14% of the total population in the U.S. This represented at least a 29% increase in the population in the past two decades (U.S. Census Bureau, 2022). African Americans are a diverse group that consists of people with varied ethnic and racial identities and experiences. Over the years, different health disparities have therefore been witnessed in the African American population. This study will therefore focus on the issue of diabetes among African-American adults.
African-American adults make up nearly 60% of the African-American population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2022). The background and history of the African American race can be traced back to slavery which was outlawed nearly 150 years ago. Most African-Americans were brought to the United States as slaves. The impact of slavery on the African American population has, therefore, affected not only their culture but also their social behaviors. For instance, food preparation and food choice behaviors of the African-American population date back to the days of slavery. Most African American dishes such as soul food and preparation of food with excessive salt, sugar, and oil can therefore date back to the history of the African American race with slavery (Cheng et al., 2019). In contemporary times, there is a disproportionately higher prevalence of diabetes in African-American adults compared to other races, such as Hispanics and Caucasians.
I selected the African-American (AA) adult population for study because recent statistics from the CDC and other important government agencies have highlighted that African-Americans are more than twice likely to succumb to diabetes compared to non-Hispanic Whites (Routh et al., 2019).AA adults are also 60% more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes by physicians compared to non-Hispanic whites. AA adults are also more susceptible to complications that arise from diabetes, such as end-stage renal disease, with African American adults being more than 3.2 times more likely to be diagnosed with the ESRD compared to Caucasians (Routh et al., 2019). On the other hand, African Americans are also more than two times more likely to be hospitalized with amputations as a result of diabetes compared to Caucasians. Such statistics highlight the disproportionate rate of diabetes prevalence and chances of occurrence of complications as a result of diabetes among African American adults (Cheng et al., 2019).
Social Economic Factors
There are numerous social-economic factors that affect the susceptibility of African-Americans to diabetes, including lack of access to healthy foods, food preparation, culture, and the adoption of a sedentary lifestyle (Hill-Briggs et al., 2022). Such factors contribute to highly disproportionate prevalence rates of diabetes among African-American adults. Built environmental barriers such as the lack of walkways and other social amenities such as gyms and parks in African-American neighborhoods also play a significant role in the susceptibility of the population to diabetes (Hill-Briggs et al., 2022).
Overarching Goals of Community Health Needs Assessment
The three main overarching goals of the community health needs assessment are to determine strategies to mitigate the onset of diabetes in the AA population, to reduce environmental barriers that contribute to diabetes in the African American population, and to provide education on preventative measures for diabetes in the AA population.
References
Cheng, Y. J., Kanaya, A. M., Araneta, M. R. G., Saydah, S. H., Kahn, H. S., Gregg, E. W., Fujimoto, W. Y., & Imperatore, G. (2019). Prevalence of Diabetes by Race and Ethnicity in the United States, 2011–2016. JAMA, 322(24), 2389. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2019.19365
Hill-Briggs, F., Ephraim, P. L., Vrany, E. A., Davidson, K. W., Pekmezaris, R., Salas-Lopez, D., Alfano, C. M., & Gary-Webb, T. L. (2022). Social Determinants of Health, Race, and Diabetes Population Health Improvement: Black/African Americans as a Population Exemplar. Current Diabetes Reports, 22(3), 117–128. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-022-01454-3
King, C. J., Moreno, J., Coleman, S. V., & Williams, J. F. (2018). Diabetes mortality rates among African Americans: A descriptive analysis pre and post Medicaid expansion. Preventive Medicine Reports, 12, 20–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2018.08.001
Routh, B., Hurt, T., Winham, D., & Lanningham-Foster, L. (2019). Family Legacy of Diabetes-Related Behaviors: An Exploration of the Experiences of African American Parents and Adult Children. Global Qualitative Nursing Research, 6, 233339361985234. https://doi.org/10.1177/2333393619852343
U.S. Census Bureau. (2022, March 25). 2020 Census Illuminates Racial and Ethnic Composition of the Country. Census.Gov. Retrieved May 5, 2022, from https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/08/improved-race-ethnicity-measures-reveal-united-states-population-much-more-multiracial.html#:%7E:text=In%202020%2C%20the%20Black%20or,million%20and%2012.6%25%20in%20201
