Community Health Interventions

Abstract

The term “community health intervention” refers to the community-wide approach to health behavior change. While there are shared terms and differences among community health interventions, community-based participatory research, and social epidemiology, they remain different approaches to improving community health. Rather than focusing primarily on the individual as change agent, community interventionists recognize a host of other factors that contribute to an individual’s capacity to achieve optimal health. This approach recommends that a multisectoral strategy be undertaken in order to make changes to create an environment or foundation of a healthy community. These modifications can be environmental, political, economic, and/or sociocultural. Community health interventions have deep roots in the theories of not only health behavior, but also in those of social change. Increasingly, this tactic of community intervention has been adopted by public health researchers and practitioners in many countries. This article provides a collection of articles, books, and monograms illustrative of the history and theoretical foundations of community health interventions. This article also provides examples of community health intervention in practice, strategies, and techniques for interventions and evaluation literature on the topic.