Community Health Diagnosis: Participatory First Step Field Study in Primary Health among Deprived Community of Chandrapur Municipality of Madhesh Province in Nepal

Abstract

Background: Community health diagnosis is a continuous process which address the health challenges and needs of a particular community. The health needs of a community are ever changing process which evaluates the success of implementation of any health program as well as the development of the community. The public health is affected by the knowledge and practices of multiple factors like maternal and child health care, family welfare, personal hygiene and sanitation and available health infrastructure and services. These factors indicated the health status of the community. In our knowledge, there might be gap in delivering public health to the community. Hence, the study conducted to assess the different community health parameters of the selected area which included demographic data, maternal and child health, family welfare, daily activities (dinacharya), personal hygiene and sanitation, awareness of COVID-19 and vaccination and health institutions and facilities. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted by face-to-face interview among the 229 household of ward 2 and 8 of Chandrapur Municipality, Rautahat district, Madhesh Province of Nepal, using semi-structured questionnaire with inclusion of community health parameters. The convenient sampling method was used for the study. Verbal informed consent was taken from the respondent as well as the local administrative office before commencing the study. The data was collected in the month of May, 2023. Results and Conclusion: The result showed that the community health status of the study area was satisfactory but still there is huge gap between the needs, services and their utilization. Although maximum children are vaccinated according to EPI, unvaccinated children were also significantly present; whereas, though most of the people used latrine for defecation, open defecation still persisted and some resident still used mud/earth or ash or only water for hand washing. Similarly, in other health related behavior there persisted the unhealthy practices. Conclusion: The various related stakeholder of the community should work efficiently to mitigate the gap between health problems and needs in the community. The health program should be specially planned, implemented and analyzed in the deprived and marginalized area of the society to address the disparity in the social, economic and health needs.