Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jan 17;23(1):44.
doi: 10.1186/s12913-022-08983-3.

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

Hamid Ravaghi  1 , Ann-Lise Guisset  2 , Samar Elfeky  3 , Naima Nasir  4 , Sedigheh Khani  5 , Elham Ahmadnezhad  6 , Zhaleh Abdi  7
Affiliations

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

Hamid Ravaghi et al. BMC Health Serv Res. .

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.

Keywords: Assets Assessment; Community; Health Needs Assessment; Needs Assessment; Population Health; Scoping Review.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no competing interests. The content of this manuscript is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the World Health Organization (WHO).

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Conceptual framework of the review
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Information flow in scoping review
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Institute of Medicne . The future of the public’s health in the 21st century. National Academy Press; 2003.
    1. Fuller J, Bentley M, Shotton D. Use of community health needs assessment for regional planning in country South Australia. Aust J Rural Health. 2001;9(1):12–17. doi: 10.1046/j.1440-1584.2001.00353.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wright J, Williams R, Wilkinson JR. Development and importance of health needs assessment. BMJ. 1998;316(7140):1310–1313. doi: 10.1136/bmj.316.7140.1310. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wright J, Walley J. Assessing health needs in developing countries. BMJ. 1998;316(7147):1819–1823. doi: 10.1136/bmj.316.7147.1819. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Jordan J, Dowswell T, Harrison S, Lilford RJ, Mort M. Health needs assessment: Whose priorities? Listening to users and the public. BMJ. 1998;316(7145):1668–1670. doi: 10.1136/bmj.316.7145.1668. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources