Running head: COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT PROJECT

Community Assessment Project

Kayltyn Stephens
Dixie State University

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Community Assessment Project
A community is defined as a group or collection of individuals interacting in social units
and sharing common interests, characteristic, values, and goals (Nies & McEwen 2015). The
community my assessment was on was North Ogden, Utah. In every community there are
different problems that arise; in my research I found a very important statistic, Coronary heart
disease is the leading cause of death in Utah with 1,529 deaths and it is the leading cause of
death in people over 65 (Utah Life Expectancy 2015). Adults in Weber County and North Ogden
are not receiving adequate education about Coronary Heart Disease. By researching my
community I was able to come up with an intervention that will educate the community and have
an impact on peoples lives.
Community Assessment and Analysis
The following sections will discuss the community of North Ogden, Utah as well as other
facts that I found while doing my community assessment. I will also discuss what the targeted
population is based on my findings and an intervention for the targeted population.
Community Assessment
North Ogden is the third largest city in Weber County. According the US Census Bureau,
there is a total area of 6.5 square miles, all of it is land. The average rain fall in North Ogden is
21 inches per year; snow fall is 43 inches per year. There are about 226 sunny days in a year in
North Ogden with an average temperature in the summer is 91 degrees. North Ogden is mountain
terrain but is still very dry and hot in the summer (AccuWeather n.d.). The Salt Lake Valley is
surrounded by all mountains like a bowl; North Ogden is located in that valley so during the
winter months the air quality gets very bad. This has a big impact on residents that live in this

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area. North Ogden is on or by many different vault lines which makes it a high risk for
earthquakes.
The 2014 census reported a Population Estimated at 18,172. In 2010 the population was
17,357. There are 5,569 households and 4,633 families in North Ogden. There is a wide rage in
income levels in North Ogden. The median household income was $ 74,666, which is higher
than the national average. Males median income is $43,712 where females were $28,180.About
3.1% of families fall below the poverty line. Most of the population in North Ogden is white at
94.3% (United Stated Census Bureau. 2015).
North Ogden is in Weber County School District. It has three Elementary Schools (North
Ogden Elementary, Bates Elementary and Majestic Elementary), one Jr. High (North Ogden Jr
High) and no High schools. The high school for North Ogden is located in Pleasant View (Weber
High School). Student to teacher ratio is 23:1 where the national average is 16:1.Weber State
University is located just minutes away from North Ogden.
When it comes to deaths in North Ogden, Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of
death in Utah with 1,529 deaths, second is stroke at 820 deaths, third is Lung disease at
681deaths, and Suicide is fourth at 572 deaths in one year. The leading cause of death in 0-14
year olds is congenital Anomalies, 15-25 year olds is Road Traffic Accidents. From 25-54 the
leading cause of death is poisoning. 55-64 is Breast Cancer. 65 + is Coronary heart disease (Citydata. 2013). There is no hospital located in North Ogden; there is North Ogden IHC Clinic.
Target Population
The target population for this assessment is the adult population of North Ogden.
Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death in Utah, Weber County and North Ogden.
54.7% of North Ogden is adults between the ages of 18-64. Instead of studying an extremely

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large of group for the target population, I narrowed it down to people ages 20-50. I chose this age
group because younger than 20 usually are not as focused on their long-term health. People who
are 50 or older may already have Coronary Heart Disease or have a lifestyle that may lead to
Coronary Heart Disease. Coronary Heart Disease may be the leading cause of death in people
over 65, but to prevent these deaths, the younger population of adults needs to be educated about
Coronary Heart Disease. Also in this age group different disease like diabetes and obesity arise
that are risk factors for Coronary Heart Disease. The age group I chose is still young enough and
more likely to change their lifestyle and get educated about Coronary Heart Disease and how to
prevent it.
Problem Identification
From the information I found during my assessment I identified that there is a lack of
knowledge and education about Coronary Heart Disease in North Ogden. Heart disease is also
the leading cause of death in the United States. Utah deaths by heart disease are lower than the
national average, but it is still the leading cause of death in Weber County and in North Ogden.
My community diagnosis is at increased risk of developing Coronary Heart Disease
amount adults ages 20-50 in North Ogden related to lack of awareness and knowledge about the
causes, risk factors and symptoms of Coronary Heart Disease as evidence by high rates of death
from Coronary Heart Disease in North Ogden, Weber County and Utah.
Goal and Objectives
My goal was to educate adults in North Ogden Utah about risk factors, ways to prevent
and signs and symptoms of Coronary Heart Disease. Community officials and health care
professionals need to increase peoples awareness about this disease and increase their
knowledge about Coronary Heart Disease. I am focusing on primary prevention by educating

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people on how to prevent Coronary Heart Disease. Primary prevention is through the education
and health promotion and the secondary prevention is actually going to get medical testing
related to Coronary Heart Disease. This goal relates to Healthy people 2020 Objective HDS 16.2
Increase population of adults 20 years of age and older who are aware of the early warning
symptoms and signs of a heart attack ( U.S Department of Health & Human Services 2013). This
is relevant to my problem because learning the symptoms for a heart attack is related to Coronary
Heart Disease, having a heart attack usually means you have Coronary Heart Disease. My impact
objective: by October 30, 2015 as a result of my educational pamphlet about Coronary Heart
Disease that North Ogden will have a greater awareness and knowledge about Coronary Heart
Disease. I outcome objective is that over the years the number of deaths by Coronary Heart
Disease will decreased related to better education.
Recourses
The resources I utilized for my intervention were very important. I used the North Ogden
Public Library and doctors offices to display my pamphlet I made about Coronary Heart Disease.
I also got pertinent information from Utah Vital Records, United States Census Bureau and the
Center of Disease Control and Prevention. I also used websites like the North Ogden City
Website, City-data and Utah Department of Health to help me gather information and develop
the intervention.
Constraints
One of the constraints I had was actually finding doctors offices that you let me display
my pamphlet I had made. Most of them already had brochure sand pamphlets about Coronary
Heart Disease so they did not need another one. I also wanted to make sure that my information
was relevant so I had a doctor at my work reviews it for accuracy.

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Community Based Intervention
Over the past 60 years the prevalence of Coronary Heart Disease has deceased, but it is
still the number one cause of death in North Ogden and in the United States. Education over the
past 60 years as gotten better, which is shown by the gradual decreased in Coronary Heart
Disease. If nurses and health care professionals educate their patients the number will continue
to come down. 11.3% of adults are diagnosed with heart disease a year. Lack of education has
increased the exposure to risk factors and being diagnoses with Coronary Heart Disease.
Opportunities to reveal coronary heart disease and its risk factors are being missed in primary
care (Turkay, Senol, Alimoglu, Aktekin, & Deger, 2007). Adults need to know about coronary
heart disease so they if they feel some symptoms coming on they know to get medical attention.
But to be able to know the symptoms and causes of Coronary Heart disease people needed to be
educated. Lack of education and knowledge is the reason Coronary Heart Disease is the number
one cause of death in The United States, Utah, Weber County and North Ogden.
Because education is so important for health issues, I decided that my community based
intervention would be to make a pamphlet about Coronary Heart Disease and I would go to local
doctors offices and public places and put them on display. In my pamphlet I defined what
Coronary Heart Disease was. I also added facts about Coronary Heart Disease, risk factors,
symptoms, ways to prevent Coronary Heart Disease and treatment for the disease. I was able to
display my pamphlet at the North Ogden City Library, and one doctors office. Most of them
already had pamphlets about Coronary Heart Disease so they did not want anymore. By
increasing the adults knowledge about Coronary Heart Disease the death rates will slowly start
to decline as the adult population I educated gets older just like they have over the past 60 years.

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Conclusion
Having this opportunity to assess my own community was eye opening. I did not realize
that much was going on in North Ogden, Utah. I believe that I was able to identify an issue that
was a problem, research the disease and do an intervention that would benefits the adults in my
community. I know that education about Coronary Heart Disease and other major health disease
may still be minimal, but I feel like it is an important subject and I am hoping that I was able to
educate and make a difference in someones life.

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References
AccuWeather (n.d.) North Ogden, UT. Retrieved From http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/northogden-ut/84414/weather-forecast/341173
City-data. (2013). Crime Rates in North Ogden, Utah. Retrieved from http://www.citydata.com/crime/crime-North-Ogden-Utah.html
NICHE. (n.d.). Schools in North Ogden, UT. Retrieved from https://k12.niche.com/t/northogden-weber-ut/
Prevalence of CHD---United Stated 2006-2010. (2011). Center for Disease Control and
Prevention. 60(40);1377-1381
Smith, S., Ralston, J. and Taubert, K., (2012). Urbanization and cardiovascular disease. World
Heart Federation. Retrieved from http://www.world-heart-federation.org/
Turkay, M., Senol, Y., Alimoglu, M. K., Aktekin, M. R., & Deger, N. (2007). Missed
Opportunities for Coronary Heart Disease: Primary Care Experience. Croatian Medical
Journal, 48(3), 362370.
United Stated Census Bureau. (2015). North Ogden, Utah QuickFacts. Retrieved from
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/49/4955100.html
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Healthypeople.gov. (2014). Healthy people
2020:Heart Disease and Stroke. Retrieved from
http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/heart-disease-and-stroke

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Utah Department of Health. (2014). Utah Vital Records. Retrieved from
http://health.utah.gov/vitalrecords/
Utah Life Expectancy. (2015). Utah Causes of Death by Age and Gender. Retrieved from
http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/utah-cause-of-death-by-age-and-gender