Asset Mapping Report: Diabetes and Community Health in King County

This report provides an analysis of asset mapping as a tool for community health assessment, specifically focusing on King County, Seattle, Washington, USA, where diabetes is a primary health concern. The report highlights the effectiveness of asset mapping in identifying a community's strengths and weaknesses, including environmental resources, financial structures, health conditions, and socioeconomic factors. The prevalence of diabetes in the community is discussed, including its high healthcare costs and disproportionate impact on certain demographics. Key assets, such as federal government funding and community organizations like Youth at Work and the Color of Words, are identified as potential resources for health promotion. The report also emphasizes the importance of geographic information system (GIS) mapping in the asset mapping process and its role in strategic health policy planning. The analysis reveals the need for improved healthcare policies and educational programs to address the issue of diabetes and improve the overall health of the community.

Running head: ASSET MAPPING
ASSET MAPPING
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Discussion
Asset mapping is one of the most important tools in the health assessment of a
community. It can be found that the asset mapping is effective in the process of the assessment of
the strength and the weaknesses of the community in terms of the environmental resources,
financial structure, health condition, education level and other socio and economic factors.
Hence, it can be stated that the asset mapping will be helpful in the identification of the needs of
the condition of the community especially the health condition of the community (Turin, Shahid
& Vaska, 2019). Thus, the strategic planning for the community health care, health promotion or
the health policy development would be done with the help of the asset mapping. Thus, the asset
mapping would effectively identify the lacks of the leadership factors and the needs of the
changes in the leadership structure or the strategy in the community (Cutts et al., 2016). Finally,
the assessment result of the asset map would inform the need of improvement of the health of the
community.
The asset mapping of the King County, Seattle Washington State, USA showed that the
primary health issue of the community is diabetes. The rate of the disease in the community is
found to be higher. There are 84000 diabetes prevalence found in the community
(Kingcounty.gov, 2020). In this context, the health care cost of the community is $1025 million
(Kingcounty.gov, 2020). On the other hand, the rate of the diabetes among the Pacific Islander is
3.2 times higher than the White people of the community (Kingcounty.gov, 2020). It has also
been seen that the death from this disease 9.3 per cent among total death of the community
(Kingcounty.gov, 2020). The death rate by diabetes is 26 per cent higher among the African
American people (Kingcounty.gov, 2020). Hence, by the asset mapping of the community it can

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be stated that the health care cost is higher for this disease in King County, Seattle Washington
State, USA is high. The death rate is also high as well. Hence, the need of the education for the
socio-economically unprivileged people is required with higher priority. It can be stated that the
obesity and the hereditary history of the people are most prominent contributing factors for
development of the disease.
Asset mapping of the community showed that the Federal government funding for the
health care delivery is one of the most useful assets for the community health. Moreover, Youth
at Work and the Color of Words are the organizations focused on the effective data collection
and developing strategic health promotion plans to reduce the rate of diabetes among the
community people. On the other hand, the average household income of the community people is
$95000 despite of 10.2 people are below poverty line in the community (Kingcounty.gov. 2020).
Furthermore, the Federal government has spent $7,913 in 2014 (Kingcounty.gov. 2020). Hence,
all these factors can be marked as the assets of the community and should be used for the health
promotion plan in order to mitigate the issue of diabetes rate of the community people.
On the other hand, the health care policy should be improved as well so that the death
rate would be reduced for the socio-economically unprivileged people. Thus, the effective asset
mapping developed the idea of the health issue of the community with a clear understanding.
However, the asset mapping should be focused on the effective understanding of the health
finance companies other than the government funding for the improvement of the health
condition of the community (Hodges, Kramer & Lazarus, 2016). The effective analysis of the
community helped in the weaknesses of the health care of the community and the resources
which can help in health promotion and strengthening the community health care. Thus, this
analysis and the asset mapping helps in the proper health policy planning for the community.

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Thus, this can be stated that the geographic information system (GIS) mapping is
one of the well known analysis which helps in the asset mapping process.
This can be found that the geographic information system (GIS) mapping is
very much effective in the asset mapping process for the community
analysis as it effective focus in one specific community and identifies the
proper needs of the community (Brissette et al., 2019). Thus, the strategic planning for
the community health care, health promotion or the health policy development would be done
with the help of the asset mapping. The geographic information system (GIS) helps in
the statistical analysis of the specific geographic region regarding the
environmental and also the health situations and changing in situation of
health (Smith et al., 2017).

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Asset map

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References
Brissette, I., Casper, M., Huston, S. L., Jordan, M., Karns, B., Kippes, C., ... & Vaughan, A. S.
(2019). Application of geographic information systems to address chronic disease
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Cutts, T., Langdon, S., Meza, F. R., Hochwalt, B., Pichardo-Geisinger, R., Sowell, B., ... &
Jones, M. T. (2016). Community health asset mapping partnership engages
Hispanic/Latino health seekers and providers. North Carolina medical journal, 77(3),
160-167.
Hodges, J., Kramer, S., & Lazarus, S. (2016). Community asset mapping: Integrating and
engaging community and health systems. Stakeholder health: Insights from new systems
of health, 73-85.
Kingcounty.gov. (2020). Kingcounty.gov. Retrieved 4 April 2020, from
https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/health/data/~/media/depts/health/data/documents/city-
health-profiles/City-Health-Profile-Seattle-2016.ashx
Kingcounty.gov. (2020). Public Health Data Watch. Retrieved 2 April 2020, from
https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/health/data/~/media/depts/health/data/documents/
diabetes-in-king-county-april-2007.ashx
Smith, M. L., Towne Jr, S. D., Motlagh, A. S., Smith, D. R., Boolani, A., Horel, S. A., & Ory,
M. G. (2017). Programs and place: risk and asset mapping for fall prevention. Frontiers
in public health, 5, 28.

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Turin, T. C., Shahid, M., & Vaska, M. (2019). Asset Mapping as a Tool for Identifying
Resources in Community Health: A Methodological Overview. Journal of Biomedical
Analytics, 2(1), 13-25.