Examples of other programs are Kaiser Permanente’s “Community Health Initiatives” — a collaboration with community-based organizations and residents to focus on prevention by supporting policies and environmental changes that promote healthy eating and active living in neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces (Kaiser Permanente Community Health Initiative), and the Stanford School of Medicine’s Office of Community Health with a focus on sustained community engagement in local health issues and training leaders in community health (Stanford School of Medicine Office of Community Health). These

selleck chemical examples of definitions demonstrate the ambiguity and overly general use of the term “community health”. The value of developing a definition for “community health” that reflects the diversity and values of communities, and how communities make decisions, while providing some modicum of order that supports the systematic generation of evidence, is critical to the advancement and maturation of the field. As we have suggested, existing definitions for community health – including those presented above in academic venues and selleck inhibitor public agencies – are not positioned to frame the expanding field of community health in public health practice settings as exemplified

by many contemporary programs and, therefore, may not meet the needs of the communities such programs are intended to serve. Nonetheless, these definitions do provide important cues for helping to shape the meaning of community health in the context of newly emerging programs and priorities. Dichloromethane dehalogenase These cues sort into four basic focus areas that collectively help to frame a definition of community health. The first focus area – “community” – encompasses population

groups and the locus (e.g., place, venue, or other unit) of programs, interventions, and other actions. These elements can overlap and, therefore, are not mutually exclusive, and include: (i) as suggested by MacQueen and colleagues, “A group of people with diverse characteristics who are linked by social ties, share common perspectives, and engage in joint action in geographical locations or settings” (MacQueen et al., 2001); (ii) venues or areas that are identified with key activities, such as residence, work, education, and recreation; and (iii) venues or areas that are physically-, geographically-, culturally-, and administratively- or geopolitically-defined. Examples of the latter include groups of persons who are defined by locality (e.g., block, neighborhood, precinct, village, town, city, county, region, other), or who are defined (sometimes self-defined) by racial-ethnic, age, or other characteristics. Most people are members of multiple types of communities (e.g., physical, work, social, spiritual) that may have different priorities, needs, cultures, and expectations.