Community
Nutrition Assessment
An Introduction to Community Nutrition Assessment
The mission of Public Health has been defined as, "Fulfilling society’s interest in assuring conditions in which people can be healthy" (Institute of Medicine). Few would argue that those conditions include adequate intakes of safe and nutritious foods.
- Programs to address nutrition concerns in communities simply don’t work in the long run unless they are well anchored in the reality of the community.
- Assessment is not an end to itself, but part of an ongoing process of needs assessment, designing and implementing community based services, and evaluation and changing programs and services.
- Several models for community assessment have been developed
- Successful community assessment includes community members and interested stakeholders as fully active participants.
- An assets based approach is likely to provide new ways of approaching assessment and planning.
One clear theme that emerges from all the models of community health assessment is the importance of a "bottom up" Vs a "top down" approach. While the imposition of an expert’s view of the best way to implement change may seem the most efficient way of achieving a goal in the short run, long lasting behavioral changes require solutions that deal with underlying factors that may only be understood by community members. From real life examples we continually learn that in any given community the issues that rise to the top may be different. Failure to address issues of specific interest to the community is a sure way to endanger the outcomes of a program.
Kinds of Information
Three basic kinds of information are gathered in the community health assessment process. These include a statistical community profile, qualitative data on the experiences of the population, and an assessment of local resources and assets. An assets based approach is likely to be more effective in imparting a sense of ownership in community members who take part in this process. In each community there are groups who care about nutrition – churches, health care institutions, government agencies, breastfeeding support groups, head start, schools, parents, and health care providers. A thoughtful compilation of assets prevents the assessment from becoming a mournful catalog of morbidity and mortality statistics.Implementing Community Assessment
Successful community assessment includes:
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The local assessment process itself should be viewed as part of a larger effort, not an end to itself. Assessment is the foundation for developing and implementing program planning, and serves as a baseline for program evaluation. Participants forge relationships between individuals and organizations that may result in enhanced opportunities for collaboration and funding. An overarching goal of the community assessment process is movement away from a categorical and programmatic view of nutrition services and programs to a focus on the role of nutritional in the community.
Protocols have been developed to guide the process of local community assessment. These are referenced in three places on this web site:
- A Bookshelf for Community Nutrition Assessment (See Suggested Bookshelf for Nutrition Community Assessment Projects)
- Links to Related Web Sites (See Web Based Tools for Community Nutrition Assessment)
- References (See Selected References)
- Probert K.L. (Ed). Moving to the Future: Developing Community Based Nutrition Services. Washington, DC: Association of State and Territorial Public Health Nutrition Directors. 1996.
- Probert K.L. Moving to the Future: Developing Community-Based Nutrition Services (Workbook and Training Manual). Washington, DC: Association of State and Territorial Public Health Nutrition Directors. 1997.
Assessment is one of the core public health functions. The three functions, assessment, policy development, and assurance were presented in a document published by the Institute of Medicine in 1998. The following tables, adapted from a document published by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research concisely defines the functions.
In many US communities local health jurisdictions have embraced the concept of core public health functions. In Washington State local health jurisdictions have taken a lead role in assessing the health needs of their communities. Many jurisdictions have a designated assessment coordinator and several have produced documents that summarize their findings. Nutrition professionals and advocates and local health assessment coordinators are natural partners in the process of nutrition assessment and planning. This website includes a list of local assessment coordinators as well as a listing of ways to find potential nutrition professionals.
Strategic Planning for Initiatives to Address
Local Health and Nutrition Efforts:
Community Assessment
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Develop and Implement Community Health Plan
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Monitor and Evaluate Community Health Plan
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 Role
of Nutrition |