Analysis of health records to arrive at community diagnosis

Hi all,

No activity is complete without an analysis of results and applying it for the improvement. Periodical medical examination data should be thoroughly analyzed and compared with different departments, age group, process, socioeconomic background etc… to arrive at a community diagnosis. 

A community is a cluster of people with at least one common characteristic feature (department, designation, age group, socioeconomic status, type of job, geographic location, country etc...) A group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society comprises a community.

Community diagnosis generally refers to the identification and quantification of health problems in a community as a whole

Importance of community diagnosis

1. It helps in finding common problems (occupational diseases) in a community which in turn can be used effectively to prevent occupational diseases.

2. Treating community as a whole is more effective in prevention of occupational diseases rather than treating on individual basis, because, while treating the affected individual, the remaining members of the same community will be having exposure to the same risk factors as the affected individual is and ultimately they too will be affected by the same disease.

E.g. Dust prone areas like RMHS department is having high levels of coal dust in the air and the employees working there are having respiratory problems and diagnosed to be having anthracosis. Corrective measures will be;
a) As per individual case management: The affected person is shifted to non-dusty areas, medical treatment is given and a new employee is posted in his place as a replacement. Co-workers and the new employee remain exposed to high coal dust. Eventually, they also get the same disease.
b) As per community approach: The particular part of RMHS department is considered as a risk zone and all the employees working in the area are considered “at risk”. So measures will be initiated to protect all the employees by implementing engineering control to reduce the coal dust level in the air, providing proper PPE’s and making strict guidelines regarding the protection of workers. Meanwhile, treatment is also started for those who are already affected. So here both the affected and at-risk people are protected. Thereby no new case of the disease will occur. In medical terms, both prevalence and incidence are reduced.
Therefore making community diagnosis and community approach while treating is of paramount importance for preventing occupational diseases.

3. Helps in preventing a healthy individual in the same community from being affected by the same risk factor.

4. Helps in secondary and tertiary prevention of those who are already affected.

5. It can be used for primordial prevention when an expansion of the plant is planned.

Once the analysis is completed a community diagnosis is made and recommendations are framed. These should be communicated to concerned authorities for initiation of actions to prevent occupational diseases. Communication is one of the most important steps for effective practicing of occupational health as the entire concept of occupational health revolves around the integrated approach.