JEFFSelects: Community & Public Health

How to Use This Resource

The purpose of this JEFFSelects is to be an online resource for research in areas of community health assessment and public health.  A community can be as small as a U.S. Census tract or a city block to as large as the world’s population.

Do not limit yourself to just the resources listed within this JEFFSelects.  Printed resources in the Scott Memorial Library Reference Area will also be useful.  The library’s holdings are available through the online catalog ThomCat.  Additional information may be found by directly contacting local government agencies (see Directory of Local Health Departments) and/or non-government entities dealing with community public health issues.

Below is a brief overview of how to conduct a community health assessment, along with some uses of this JEFFSelects module for public health research.

Steps for Community Health Assessment Research

1. Identify the community to be studied, including boundaries (see Community Locator Tools).
2. Look at statistical resources specific to the community (see JEFFSelects Statistics).  However, not all statistics will be up to date or fit exactly for a community.  Some adjustments may need to be made.
3. Use national, regional, state, and/or another community's statistics as a baseline for comparing to your community's statistics (see JEFFSelects Statistics).
4. Identify any areas that appear to differ, either positively or negatively, between your community's statistics and the baseline statistics.
5. Identify factors within the community that may contribute to these statistical differences.
6. Additional assessment may be necessary. Check local community news for any community health issues, using either in printed community specific papers or using the JEFFLINE News Stand. Community-specific Web sites are also helpful (see JEFFSelects: Philadelphia Area), in additional to community walk-throughs and residential surveys.

Uses for Public Health Research

• To identify the public health status of a particular community.
• To identify a community's preparedness to deal with public health emergencies (e.g., natural disasters, health epidemics, industrial accidents, or bioterrorism).
• To look at epidemiology patterns within a community and for specific diseases or disorders occurring within a region.
• To evaluate methods to help improve a community's public health status.
• To assist with funding of public health efforts.
• To help promote good public health practices within a community (to both the general public and the local government).

Additional assistance for members of the Jefferson community is available.  Please contact the Scott Memorial Library Information Services Department for more help.