CHES Needs Assessment and Capacity 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A health educator wants to determine the gap between a community's current health status and a desired health status. Which term best describes this gap?
- Health disparity
- Needs assessment
- Health need (Correct answer)
- Capacity gap
Correct answer: Health need
A health need is defined as the gap between the current state and a desired or optimal state of health.
Question 2: Which data source would be MOST appropriate for obtaining existing community health statistics during a secondary data review?
- Focus group transcripts
- Community surveys
- Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) (Correct answer)
- Key informant interviews
Correct answer: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS)
BRFSS is a national secondary data source that provides existing state-level and community health behavior and risk factor data.
Question 3: During a needs assessment, a health educator discovers that community members lack knowledge about diabetes prevention. This finding represents which type of need?
- Normative need
- Felt need (Correct answer)
- Expressed need
- Comparative need
Correct answer: Felt need
Felt needs are those perceived or experienced by individuals themselves, such as lacking knowledge about a health topic.
Question 4: A health education specialist uses nominal group technique during the needs assessment phase. What is the PRIMARY advantage of this method?
- It reaches large populations quickly
- It ensures equal participation and prioritization among group members (Correct answer)
- It provides statistical significance
- It eliminates the need for facilitators
Correct answer: It ensures equal participation and prioritization among group members
Nominal group technique ensures all participants have equal input and uses structured voting to prioritize needs without group pressure.
Question 5: Which of the following BEST exemplifies community capacity in the context of a needs assessment?
- The number of health conditions prevalent in the community
- The community's assets, skills, and resources available to address health issues (Correct answer)
- The total funding available from government grants
- The number of health educators employed in the region
Correct answer: The community's assets, skills, and resources available to address health issues
Community capacity refers to the combination of assets, skills, relationships, and resources a community can mobilize to address its own health needs.
Question 6: An asset mapping exercise is conducted as part of a community needs assessment. What does this process primarily identify?
- Health disparities and risk factors
- Financial deficits in local health programs
- Existing strengths, resources, and supports within the community (Correct answer)
- Barriers to healthcare access
Correct answer: Existing strengths, resources, and supports within the community
Asset mapping identifies existing community strengths, resources, organizations, and informal supports that can be leveraged for health improvement.
Question 7: A needs assessment reveals that a high-risk population has access to health services but does not use them. This discrepancy MOST likely indicates a need for assessment of:
- Program funding levels
- Physical infrastructure
- Cultural, linguistic, or structural barriers (Correct answer)
- Provider training programs
Correct answer: Cultural, linguistic, or structural barriers
When services exist but are underutilized, the assessment should explore cultural appropriateness, language barriers, stigma, or structural access issues.
CHES Needs Assessment and Capacity 2
A health educator wants to determine the gap between a community's current health status and a desired health status.
Which term best describes this gap?