Program Planning: Community
Nutrition Assessment

• Systematic process
• Continual feedback and evaluation
• Cyclical: based on increasing understandings of the true nature of the situation and the effectiveness of interventions.
• Starts with an assessment of the current situation

Community Nutrition Assessment:
• Anchors interventions in the reality of the community
• Essential part of ongoing process:
– Needs assessment
– Designing and implementing interventions
– Evaluation
– Feedback for improvement
• Includes community and stakeholders as fully active participants

Community Nutrition Assessment:
• Based on assets more than deficits
• Helps to integrate nutrition programs into community-based institutions and initiatives

Successful Community
Assessment Includes:
• Understanding current conditions of families, individuals, institutions & policies
• Evaluating local capacities for supporting change
• Building community support for implementing changes

Models and Protocols for
Community Assessment
• Planned Approaches to Community Health
(PATCH) – CDC
• Assessment Protocol for Excellence in
Public Health (APEXPH) – NACHO
(National
Association of County Health Officials)
• Moving to the Future: Developing
Community Based Nutrition Services –
ASTPHND
(Association of State and Territorial Public Health
Nutrition Directors)

Strategic Planning for Initiatives to
Address Local Health Efforts
• Organize a community planning group
• Define community boundaries
• Gather information
– Statistical profile
– Qualitative data
– Community Resources & Environments
– Policies
Agency for Health Care Policy and Research

• Analyze Information
– Common issues
– High risk individuals
– Unmet needs
– Prioritize
• Develop and implement plan
• Monitor and evaluate plan

Community Nutrition Planning
Group: Responsibilities
• Collect data and information
• Identify needs and gaps
• Set priorities
• Develop a plan
• Help to implement interventions
• Assist in evaluation
– Of assessment, planning, and intervention process
– Of impact of intervention

Community Nutrition Planning
Group: Potential Members
• Community leaders & advocates
• Consumers
• Health and nutrition service providers
• Health organizations
• Schools
• Political office holders or their staff
• Fitness, Parks & Rec professionals
• Representatives from greater community health planning groups
• Food systems representatives

• Geographic boundaries
• General history
• Key people and leaders
• Demographics
• Financial & economic information
• Important issues
• Morale and involvement levels
• Key allies and rivals
• Unspoken rules and norms
• Attitudes and opinions
• Strengths and shortcomings

• Physical structure, place, business
• Concerned citizens
• History of successful efforts
• Organizations
• Individual and group skills
• Communications systems
• Relationships

• WHY?
– To understand public opinion
– To become aware of needs the planning group doesn’t know about
– To gather support & expand group expertise
– To make decisions about priorities
– To plan programs in ways that will be acceptable to stakeholders

How do we assess perceived needs?
• Listening sessions
• Public forums
• Key informant interviews
• Needs assessment survey or survey of concerns

• Economic status: income, employment, % below poverty
• Education levels
• Age and gender
• Race & ethnicity
• Social factors: homelessness, immigration status, family composition, TANF utilization

• Causes of Mortality
• Hospital discharge data
• Disease prevalence data
• Food bourne illness reports
• Years of potential life lost
• Infant mortality

• Pregnancy related:
– weight gain in pregnancy
– Pre-pregnancy weight
– Anemia
• Disease prevalence: HIV/AIDS, cardiovascular disease, diabetes
• Activity levels (BRFSS)
• Food intake: fat, fruits & vegetables (BRFSS)
• Dental health
• Food/dieting related behaviors (YRBS)
• Food Security (BRFSS)

Community Nutrition Resources
• Food assistance programs (WIC, SNAP, summer feeding programs for school children, etc.)
• Educational programs
• Media
• Professional and non-profit organizations
• Nutrition counseling

• Grocery stores with high quality produce
• Food service with health promoting food options
• Farmers’ Markets
• Vegetable gardens
• Community Supported Agriculture
• Supports for growing local foods

Community Resources & Service
Utilization
• What resources are available?
• To what extent are people using them?
• Sources of Information:
– Citizens
– Service providers
• Tools
– Existing data
– Interviews
– Surveys

Criteria for defining/prioritizing community problems
• Frequency
• Duration
• Scope or range
• Severity
• Perceptions
• Root causes (“but why?”) & ability to impact root causes (effectiveness of interventions)
• Barriers to resolutions
• Political and financial support

Group Work: Develop Problem List
• Brainstorm nutrition related issues & problems that arise from these data
• Choose 5 issues that are of interest to all stakeholders
• Prioritize these issues using criteria in these slides
• Establish the one issue or problem that all stakeholders will be comfortable working on for the next two weeks