SOAP Model for Community Health Assessment
Clinicians get subjective information from the patient, including the patient's presenting complaint, experience of his or her symptoms, and collect objective information such as the results of blood pressure measurements, x-rays and blood tests. After collecting the patient data, the clinician makes a diagnosis (assessment), and then decides on a treatment plan.
The S.O.A.P. Model for Clinical and Community Health Assessment
| Clinical Assessment | Community Assessment | |
|---|---|---|
| Subjective | Presenting complaint, symptoms, pain, medical interview | Community members, advisory boards, CBOs, focus groups, key informant interviews, qualitative surveys |
| Objective | Physical examination, Heart rate, BP, Blood test, X-ray | Morbidity, mortality rates, behavioral data, social determinants, quantitative surveys |
| Assessment | What is the diagnosis? | What are the priority health and safety issues? |
| Plan | What treatment will be most effective? | What interventions will be most effective? |
The same heuristic can be applied to public health assessment. A clinician wouldn't think of prescribing a treatment without first collecting both subjective and objective information. As public health practitioners, we shouldn't consider planning or implementing programs or making policy decisions in the absence of relevant data.
In practice, public health decisions should probably not be based SOLELY on empirical (objective) data, but
they should always be --Back to Community Health Assessment resources page--