Prioritizing Community Health Problems

Abstract

At present, a growing numbers of health problems while resources are limited and different opinions. This may lead to addressing health problems do not meet the ultimate goal. Prioritization of problems is a critical decision-making process in planning to address important community health issues. This academic article aims to provide knowledge about the importance and concepts of prioritizing community health problems, prioritization process, and prioritization methods.The processes for prioritizing community health problems included: 1) Community Health Assessment, 2) Agency self-assessment, 3) Clarify objectives and processes, and 4) Establish criteria. This article also presents the different of prioritization methods, its advantages and limitations include: 1) Strategy Grids 2) The Hanlon Method 3) Matrix Method, and 4) Nominal Group Technique (NGT). Problems prioritization has an important role for decision-making under the lack of community resources, community participation in terms of data synthesis, and good decision-making from community stakeholders are needed. Therefore, decision-makers have to choose the suitable method with clear objectives and criteria, which appropriates the community context in the most democratic way.