A community health assessment (CHA), also known as community health needs assessment (CHNA), refers to a state, tribal, local, or territorial health assessment that identifies key health needs and issues through systematic, comprehensive data collection and analysis. CHAs use these principles:
- Multisector collaborations that support shared ownership of all phases of community health improvement, including assessment, planning, investment, implementation, and evaluation
- Proactive, broad, and diverse community engagement to improve results
- A definition of community that encompasses both a significant enough area to allow for population-wide interventions and measurable results, and includes a targeted focus to address disparities among subpopulations
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- Maximum transparency to improve community engagement and accountability
- Use of evidence-based interventions and encouragement of innovative practices with thorough evaluation
- Evaluation to inform a continuous improvement process
- Use of the highest quality data pooled from, and shared among, diverse public and private sources
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