Journal of School of Public Health and

Background and Aim: Nowadays, in health promotion and disease prevention great emphasis is put on participatory community-based approaches. These approaches are considered as the main strategy of health promotion by using multiple interventions. Community assessment is a participatory research approach in which problems prioritization and resource distribution are done using information collected in a region aiming at promoting health of the community.

Materials and Methods: In this applied research community assessment was made in the Chahestaniha region in the City of BandarAbbas with the objective of identifying and prioritizing the main problems. The assessment consisted of eight phases, namely, the formation of a community assessment team, Primary and secondary data collection, data analysis and interpretation, combining district-level health statistics with community assessment data, reporting to the community, prioritizing health problems, and prepared a community assessment document.  In the eighth phase, after considering all risk factors that cause high prevalence of Children head lice, the action plan was designed and implemented to solve the problems.

Results: The Chahestaniha community assessment led to identifying 52 problems. The priority problems were classified. High prevalence of lice on children’s head was chosen as the top major problem to be solved, an action plan for solving it was developed and implemented.

Conclusion: The full cycle of community assessment methodology can be applied, with only some small changes, in most communities with different sizes, cultures, traditions and social habits. The method can obtain participation of the people in conducting the study and implementing interventions.