Nursing Community Health Assessment

Running head: NURSING
Community Health Assessment in the domain of Diabetes development and the South Asian
immigrants in Toronto, Canada
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
Community-based health assessment helps to provide framework for the public health
agencies in order to identify and to describe the population health priorities. Community-
health assessment also helps in predicting the health-related outcomes and the other resource
available along with the health-related inequalities that are prevalence among diverse group
of socio-economic population (Vollman, Anderson & McFarlane, 2007). The main role of the
community health nurse is to complete a comprehensive community-based assessment in
order to identify the significant health-related issues along with the formulation of the
specific intervention strategies to help prevent and to promote the overall health of the
population. One of the alarming health-related inequality prevalent Canada is increase level
of health-related inequalities among the immigrants in the domain o non-communicable
diseases (Vollman, Anderson & McFarlane, 2007). The following assignment aims to
conduct community based health assessment of the South Asian immigrants residing in
Toronto, Canada in the domain of diabetes development. Population Health Promotion Model
will be used as the main framework for the community-based health assessment.
Overview of the selected population: South Asian immigrants in Toronto
According to the 2006 Census nearly 1.26 million people from Southern part of Asian
population call Toronto their second home, making 4.0% of the total population. They are
also regarded as the largest visible minority group in Canada (Statistics Canada, 2006). The
significant percentage of population (68%) reporting to be South Asian origin in the 2001
Census are foreign born. Only 32% are born in Canada. South Asians are identified as those
who are self-identified themselves of having their ancestral home in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka,
Nepal, Pakistan and different parts of India like West Bengal, Punjab, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu
and Kerala (Islam, Khanlou, & Tamim, 2014). Nearly three quarters of foreign-born South

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Asian population are regarded as the recent immigrants who have arrived in Canada during
the last 20 years. During 2011, approximately a quarter of one million individuals immigrated
to Canada and has made Canada their permanent residence. Nearly 15% of the South Asian
immigrants are from India (Statistics Canada, 2011).
Importance of the health assessment
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO (2019) diabetes is a chronic yet
metabolic disease that is characterized by elevated of blood glucose that cast serious damages
to the blood vessels, kidneys, heart and nerves. The most common type of diabetes in adult i
type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). T2DM occurs when he body fails to respond to insulin for
glucose uptake or becomes incapable to secreting insulin from pancreatic cells. WHO (2019)
further stated that during the past three decades, the prevalence of T2DM has increased
dramatically in developed, developing and undeveloped countries. In T1DM or juvenile
diabetes or insulin dependent diabetes, the body fails to secrete adequate insulin. Nearly 422
million people living worldwide have diabetes. People from poor socio-economic
determinants of health, low to middle income countries or immigrants are more vulnerable to
this disease development (mainly T2DM). The population study conducted by Doyle et al.
(2018). based on The Canadian Community Health Survey (2007 to 2008), the Canadian
immigrants are more vulnerable to T2DM development. The survey also highlighted that the
immigrants were initially healthier in comparison to the Canadian natives. The study
suggested that the immigrants who are young adults have higher risk factors towards diabetes
development and longer they live in Canada, higher is their diabetes risk quotient (Doyle et
al., 2018). Thus, it can be said that the South Asian immigrants in Toronto, Canada are
vulnerable to diabetes development. Moreover, this population will benefit from the
community health assessment. Conduction of community health assessment will help to

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uncover the community diagnosis along with the prevention and health promotion strategies
for fighting against this non-communicable disease, diabetes.
Rationale behind the selection of Assessment Method
The community based health assessment will be done based on the Population Health
Promotion Model. According to Vollman, and McFarlane (2007), the Population Health
Promotion model has been implemented during the course of time in order to embrace the
levels of action, other action strategies, social determinants of health and other foundation for
practices for health promotion. The Population Health Promotion model employs a
comprehensive approach as it allows to utilize the tools at several points. A community
health nurse might begin health promotion model by selection proper SDH they intent to
influence and/or the level at which the overall action is going to be taken (Schroeder et al.,
2018). One of the principal areas of focus in the domain of the Population Health model is
how the overall SDH impacts the overall ability of community to function. Schroeder et al.
(2018) have stated that environmental and social factors contribute 75% of population health.
For example, the group of population who resides under poor SDH health experiences
development of diabetes, especially T2DM. This includes people from the low-income homes
and people who are from the minority population (Vollman & McFarlane, 2007). Since
T2DM is impacted by poor SDH, application of Population Health Model would be
considered as best possible method for community health assessment followed by the
determination of the strategies in order to overcome the health risk.