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Community Population Study Essay

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COMMUNITY POPULATION STUDY AND NEED
For this essay, the chosen population are wards within the Tonbridge and Malling area. Tonbridge and Malling borough has a population of 117,1001 in an area of 24,013 hectares, and is divided into 26 electoral wards. According to the Tonbridge and Malling Local Authority Health Inequalities Profile April 2010 Tonbridge and Malling is an affluent borough that contains small pockets of deprivation, it has one of the widest gaps in life expectancy in Kent between the richest and poorest wards. The gap in life expectancy between the wards with the highest and lowest wards is of 8.7 years which is one of the widest gaps in Kent. Only 1400 people live in the most deprived national quintile. For this …show more content…

The DOH (Healthy Lives, Healthy People 2011) states Public health has a clear priority ,and is seen as a core part of business across Government and is supported with the resources to ensure the focus on public health interventions is maintained; and the commitment to reduce health inequalities is a priority for all parts of the public health system, drawing on the Marmot review ( Marmot, M. (2010) Fair Society, Healthy Lives) to address the wider determinants of health and complementing the role of the NHS to reduce inequalities in access to and outcome from health services.
Sarah Cowley (Community Public Health in Policy and Practice) 2nd edition (2008) p.4 states “The definition of health needs in respect of health improvement is more complex than its clinical counterparts, as it concerns whole populations and determinants of health.” http://www.nice.org.uk/niceMedia/documents/hna.pdf 2002 states that a Health needs assessment is a systematic review of the health issues facing a population leading to agreed priorities and resource allocation that will improve health and reduce inequalities.
Several definitions of health needs assessment are possible. In general terms, the purpose of a health needs assessment is to improve the health of a whole population and to target resources towards improving the health of those at specific risk or in under-served population subgroups.
Mackintosh et al. (1998: 18)

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