Community assessment for identification and prioritization of problems to establish health promotion operational plans

  Community assessment is a process in which the active participation of community members develops strategies and programs to address the strengths and weaknesses of the community and prioritize and solve them. This study is aimed to assess society and determine its health priorities in order to establish operational plan to solve its problems with population participation . This research is based on the MPH training courses and North Carolina models that were conducted in two main phases: The first phase was a descriptive study. The second phase focused on target population’s viewpoint by qualitative methods that were conducted by focus group discussions and individual in-depth interviews. The purpose of this step was to determine community problems priorities in order to reach data saturation by semi-structured interviews and group meetings with 80 members of urban population aged 15 to 65 years old. Extracted problems were prioritized using the Hanlon method. Improper disposal of sewage, urban sewage disposal, lack of recreational spaces and sports, stray dogs, narrow streets, lack of medical facilities in hospitals, forced and early marriages for girls, use non-native and disqualified managers, high prevalence of depression among the youth and lack of capital and natural resources were recognized as main problems in the studied society. Utilization of community assessment methods based on the problems recognition models in urban health system can be used as an effective tool in promoting community health through underlying weaknesses and strengths and leading capitals towards prioritized problems.