Mahdieh Keykavoos Iranag, Hadi Pashapour, Azam Jafari, Khadijeh Keshavarzian, Mahmoud Khodamoradi, Abass Ali Dorosti, Asghar Mohammadpoorasl,
Volume 16, Issue 3 (12-2018)
Abstract
Background and Aim: Developing appropriate programs for community problem solving and community development and prosperity will be possible only after realistic identification of the community’s problems. Community health assessment is a process by which researchers and community members understand the health care system and community concerns through data collection and analysis, determining strengths and weaknesses and defining the community’s resources and demands. Basmenj is a town located 10 kilometer from the metropolitan City of Tabriz, Iran and on the verge of adjoining this metropolis. This paper reports results of the community assessment of this town.
Materials and Methods: This study was conducted in autumn 2017. The methodology used for community assessment was based on the eight-stage model of North Carolina. In the first seven stages the Basmenj community problems were identified and prioritized, followed, in the eighth stage, by developing an action plan for solving the problems in order of priority.
Results: Approximately 100 different problems were identified at the end of the first stage. Based on the Hanlon classification model, the top prioritized problems of the region were found to be, in that order, youth addiction, urban trashes, stray dogs, environmental pollution caused by Pars Color Company, narrowness of the main street, inner-city livestock farming, early marriage among girls, wastewater problems, youth unemployment, and high consumption and self-administration of anti-biotics.
From among these problems, the urban trashes problem was studied briefly. Factors playing a role in its causation were found to be as follows: lack of waste reduction and waste sorting programs, low citizens’ knowledge about trash gathering, absence of an appropriate urbane wastewater system, and, finally, lack of participation of citizens and the private sector in trash gathering and burying
Conclusion: A wide range of social, cultural and economic problems was identified. The top priority was found to be focusing on problems related to urban trashes. However, it should be noted that solving all the community problems identified requires the co-operation and support of all the governmental organizations, as well as involvement of the community at large.
Farhad Shekari, Hadi Jalilvand, Asghar Mohammadpoorasl,
Volume 20, Issue 2 (9-2022)
Abstract
Background and Aim: The promotion of the health of the members of a society is based on the assessment of the situation of that society. This study was conducted in the Soufian district of Shabestar city with the aim of identifying and prioritizing its problems and needs with the direct participation of the people.
Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in the Sufian District of Shabestar city in 2019, the methodology used being based the 8-phases model of North Carolina. The community health assessment was performed in 8 phases. The first seven phases included identifying and prioritizing the problems of the District, and the eighth was developing operational plans to solve its priority problems.
Results: A total of 23 different problems were identified. Prioritizing the problems according to the Hanlon method showed the ten main and priority problems to be, in a descending order, as follows: marriage of girls at an early age (21.01), excessive use of chemical fertilizers in farmlands (20.89), lack of social security clinics (20.51), unemployment (20.38), severe air pollution caused by incineration of industrial waste (20.01), accumulation of municipal waste in the city (19.89), high hardness of city water (19.76), lack of property deeds (19.63), lack of a specific unit in the industrial town to separate waste (19.38), and lack of a gas supply to Mehr Housing and lack of asphalted roads (19.28). Marriage of girls at an early age was identified as the main problem and with the first priority, and a general preliminary study was done on it; it was found that in about 43% of all marriages registered between 2014 and the first half of 2021 the ages of girls were under 18 years. Factors causing and increasing marriage of girls at an early age were identified to be as follows: low awareness of girls' families and girls themselves of the consequences of early marriage, social acceptance of early marriage in the area and low parental literacy.
Conclusion: In this study a wide range of social, cultural, economic and health problems were identified in the population studied. Marriage of girls at an early age is an important social problem with serious undesirable consequences. In an attempt to solve this problem it is essential to consider, in addition to legal and legislative strategies and actions, appropriate scientific, social, cultural and economic strategies and applied research.
