A scoping review of community health needs and assets assessment: concepts, rationale, tools and uses

Abstract

Background Community health needs and assets assessment is a means of identifying and describing community health needs and resources, serving as a mechanism to gain the necessary information to make informed choices about community health. The current review of the literature was performed in order to shed more light on concepts, rationale, tools and uses of community health needs and assets assessment. Methods We conducted a scoping review of the literature published in English using PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, PDQ evidence, NIH database, Cochrane library, CDC library, Trip, and Global Health Library databases until March 2021. Results A total of 169 articles including both empirical papers and theoretical and conceptual work were ultimately retained for analysis. Relevant concepts were examined guided by a conceptual framework. The empirical papers were dominantly conducted in the United States. Qualitative, quantitative and mixed-method approaches were used to collect data on community health needs and assets, with an increasing trend of using mixed-method approaches. Almost half of the included empirical studies used participatory approaches to incorporate community inputs into the process. Conclusion Our findings highlight the need for having holistic approaches to assess community’s health needs focusing on physical, mental and social wellbeing, along with considering the broader systems factors and structural challenges to individual and population health. Furthermore, the findings emphasize assessing community health assets as an integral component of the process, beginning foremost with community capabilities and knowledge. There has been a trend toward using mixed-methods approaches to conduct the assessment in recent years that led to the inclusion of the voices of all community members, particularly vulnerable and disadvantaged groups. A notable gap in the existing literature is the lack of long-term or longitudinal–assessment of the community health needs assessment impacts.

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“…Consequently, they can establish a suitable and efficient framework to address these needs. [ 36 ] Failure to address these demands may result in the implementation of a hierarchical methodology for delivering healthcare, wherein a limited number of individuals dictate the perceived requirements of the populace, rather than accurately identifying and meeting their genuine needs. [ 36 ] These particular phases must directly involve the government and health ministries, who will be charged with the responsibility of assessing the current laboratory infrastructure and needs of the laboratory through standardized grading rubrics, surveys on laboratory needs amongst various local and national healthcare facilities, or conducting focus group interviews with end users of laboratory equipment at all strata of the healthcare system in the country.…”

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