Since the early 1990s, the Assessment Initiative of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has provided support to state health departments in assessing their progress toward objectives outlined in the Healthy People and in developing and improving their capacity to conduct community health assessments.1 The Assessment Initiative is currently in its fourth 5-year cycle and continues to evolve and meet the needs of public health. Through the annual Assessment Initiative conference and through the published literature, recipients of funding have been able to share their experiences and expertise with other public health practitioners.1-5

Editorial comments and articles from previous issues of the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice on community health assessment discussed the importance of assessments and acknowledged the need for evidence-based decision making. Over the 16 years of the Assessment Initiative's existence, there has been a growing acknowledgement of evaluation and assessment as critical components of public health practice. Evaluating the process and impact of community health assessment is essential to its improvement.

In January 2007, the Assessment Initiative issued a call for manuscripts addressing impacts of community health assessments. Forty-two proposals were received. After extensive peer-review processes, eight articles were selected for this special focus issue. Some of the included articles describe tools for evaluating the impacts of community health assessments and others describe evaluations of impacts.

Emphasis on community health assessment has grown in the United States, driven largely by its recognition as a core public health function. Concomitantly, information technology of the state and local governments has improved, making assessment easier to conduct. Despite these developments, limited literature exists on impacts of community health assessment.6 The lack of knowledge in this area suggests several questions worthy of investigation:

* Do we lack scientists/researchers trained in public health program evaluation?

* Are health departments overly focused on the immediate success of their community health assessments, with less focus on their health impacts?

* Are data to support evaluation of impacts of community health assessment difficult to obtain?

Although it is clear that community assessments have become valuable tools for identifying community health problems, the actual process associated with implementing a community health assessment is also important. Engaging broad involvement in community health assessment results in far more than data collection and generates public support. Overall, it would appear that implementing a community health assessment can be considered a positive outcome.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention remains committed to supporting both the continued implementation of community health assessment in state and local health departments and the development of improved tools for evaluating the impacts of community health assessments. The articles in this special focus issue provide an excellent overview of the current state of the art of evaluations of the impact of community health assessment.

REFERENCES