Community capacity for prevention and health promotion: a scoping review on underlying domains and assessment methods

Abstract

Background Building community capacity is an essential health promotion approach, which refers to the characteristics of communities that affect their ability to identify and address social and public health problems. Despite general agreement about certain capacity domains and frameworks, there is no comprehensive and consistent assessment of community capacity. Therefore, the aim of this scoping review is to identify the domains and methods used to assess community capacity related to community-based prevention and health promotion. Methods A scoping search was performed on 06/02/2022 via PubMed, Web of Science, and Science Direct, with supplemental searches via Google Scholar. The review included studies published in English from 1990 to 2022 that explicitly described how community capacity was assessed in health promotion and prevention interventions. Furthermore, studies had to meet at least two of the three following criteria for capacity assessment: a theoretical foundation, a participatory approach, or a field test of the assessment tool. Results From 4779 records, 38 studies were included after applying exclusion criteria. Nineteen studies used mixed, eleven qualitative and eight quantitative methods to assess community capacity. The various domains used to assess community capacity were identified and reassembled into nine comprehensive domains: community participation, knowledge and skills, resources, leadership, community power, sense of community, collaboration, critical awareness and problem-solving, and community structure. The review also identified four sub-domains, which include commitment, communication, shared values and goals, and sustainability. Discussion This scoping review provides an overview of the domains and methods used to assess community capacity, which can facilitate the development of a comprehensive approach to capacity assessment in future research.

Contextual effects of community capacity as a predictor for adolescent alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug use: A multi-level analysis

“…The study used ten domains to assess community capacity for prevention and health promotion, identified through a scoping review ( Birgel, Decker, et al, 2023 ). Based on the definitions of these domains, items from the Community Key Informant (CKI) were identified that allowed measurement of each domain or dimensions of the domain, notwithstanding that the CKI was not originally designed for comprehensive community capacity assessment.…”

“…Prior to the present analyses, the validity and reliability of the community capacity scales was evaluated, as described in Birgel, Walter, & Röding, 2023 . Structural validity of the ten capacity constructs was investigated through an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).…”

“…In a previously conducted scoping review, we identified nine dimensions of community capacity that have most commonly been utilized in prior studies to measure capacity in the field of prevention and health promotion ( Birgel et al, 2023 , Birgel et al, 2023 ). Our study involves a secondary data analysis of a Community Key Informant Interview (CKI) from the CTC-EFF-Study.…”

Validación lingüística y cultural del instrumento “The Community Capacity Building Tool”

“…La salud pública es un aspecto emergente en los últimos años, ha surgido la necesidad de crear herramientas con el fin de empoderar a las comunidades para obtener una perspectiva multinivel sobre los problemas de salud para desarrollar estrategias efectivas de promoción de la salud y prevención de la enfermedad, ya que los métodos tradicionales suelen ser insuficientes. (1) Una de las herramientas más utilizadas para evaluar este tipo de las capacidades comunitarias es el "The Community Capacity Building Tool". (2) Está diseñada como herramienta de planeación aplicada a los proyectos de promoción en salud, donde permite identificar fortalezas, debilidades y progreso del proyecto, y así dirigir el rumbo de las intervenciones.…”

Relating community capacity to the adoption of an evidence-based prevention strategy: a community-level analysis

“…As such, we conducted a scoping review in which we identified domains emphasized for prevention and health promotion prior to this study: community participation, knowledge & skills, resources, leadership, community power, sense of community, collaboration, critical awareness & problem-solving, and community structure. This scoping review provides definitions for each of the capacity domains (Birgel et al 2023).…”