Community Health
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"Community Health" refers to the health status of a defined group of people, or community, and the actions and conditions that protect and improve the health of the community.
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Factors affecting Community health are Individual behaviour, Physical, Social, Cultural factors and Community organization.
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Community health can be enhanced by Health promotion, Health protection and Health services.
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It is not an individual phenomenon. It can be well achieved only by the efforts of the entire community.
The importance of Community health is well brought out here:
"Health care is vital to all of us some of the time, but public health is vital to all of us all of the time".
What is Community Health?
The health status of the people living in a particular area under the same general regulations, norms, values, and organizations, for example, the health status of the people living in a particular town, and the actions taken to protect and improve the health of these residents, would normally constitute community health. It often is threatened by communicable diseases, and epidemics. Also environmental hygiene and living conditions can affect everyone?s health equally.
Factors that Affect Community Health
There are four categories of factors that affect the health of a community or population. Because these factors will vary in separate communities, the health status of individual communities will be different. The factors that are included in each category, and an example of each factor, are noted here.
1. Physical factors: Geography (parasitic diseases), environment (availability of natural resources), community size (overcrowding), and industrial development (pollution).
2. Social and cultural factors: Beliefs, traditions, and prejudices (smoking in public places, availability of ethnic foods, racial disparities), economy (employee health care benefits), politics (government participation), religion (beliefs about medical treatment), social norms (drinking on a college campus), and socioeconomic status (number of people below poverty level).
3. Community organization: Available health agencies (local health department, voluntary health agencies), and the ability to organize to problem solve (lobby city council).
4. Individual behavior: Personal behavior (health-enhancing behaviors like exercising, getting immunized, and recycling wastes.
Citations
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Community Health, Encyclopedia of Public Health, Answers.com
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Green, L. W., and Kreuter, M. W. (1999).
Health Promotion Planning: An Educational and Ecological Approach, 3rd edition. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing. -
Green, L. W., and Ottoson, J. M. (1999).
Community and Population Health, 8th edition. Boston: WCB/McGraw-Hill. -
Kreuter, M. W.; Lezin, N. A.; Kreuter, M. W.; and Green, L. W. (1998).
Community Health Promotion Ideas that Work: A Field-Book for Practitioners. Boston: Jones and Bartlett. -
McKenzie, J. F.; Pinger, R. R.; and Kotecki, J. E. (1999).
An Introduction to Community Health, 3rd edition. Boston: Jones and Bartlett. -
McKenzie, J. F., and Smeltzer, J. L. (1997).
Planning, Implementing, and Evaluating Health Promotion Programs: A Primer, 2nd edition. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
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