ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the reader to different approaches to health needs assessment. Primary care workers need to know how to assess individuals, how to manage their care and how to encourage healthier lifestyles. The chapter outlines some of the techniques primary care workers can use to develop this area of their practice. It discusses how the collected information can be interpreted and applied in practice. The chapter also discusses the role and functions of health needs assessment in contemporary primary healthcare. It also outlines four key approaches to health needs assessment: the practice profile, the community profile, the life-cycle framework and the group of special interest. The chapter also identifies methods of collecting quantitative information from public and patient records and epidemiological data. It analyses the scope and appropriateness of four approaches to primary data collection. The chapter considers ways in which the results of health needs assessment can be used in primary healthcare practice.
