Abstract

Community resilience is the ability of communities and groups to adapt and thrive in response to external stressors. Building resilient communities as a strategy for population health requires assessment of personal and collective capacities alongside vulnerabilities. This report examines what quantitative and qualitative methods can be used to measure health-related community resilience at national and local levels. Evidence from a rapid review of 33 studies highlighted various methodological challenges. Measurement strategies, mostly drawn from the field of community disaster resilience, include population-level frameworks, mixed methods assessment tools, and qualitative and participatory case studies. The main conclusions are that measurement of health-related community resilience should cover multiple domains (economic, social, health, skills, political and environment) and consider local context and assets. Three stages of policy development are suggested: selection of a set of key indicators to collect data on community resilience, creation of a learning network to share knowledge and tools, and development of a comprehensive measurement framework.

Contents

• ABBREVIATIONS
• CONTRIBUTORS
• SUMMARY
• 1. INTRODUCTION
  • 1.1. Background
  • 1.2. Methodology
• 2. RESULTS
  • 2.1. Mapping the measurement domains
  • 2.2. Measurement frameworks using population datasets
  • 2.3. Mixed methods assessment frameworks
  • 2.4. Quantitative measurement strategies
  • 2.5. Qualitative and participatory approaches
• 3. DISCUSSION
  • 3.1. Strengths and limitations of the review
  • 3.2. Methodological challenges
  • 3.3. Contextualization: qualitative and participatory methods
  • 3.4. Translating knowledge into policy and action
  • 3.5. Policy considerations
• 4. CONCLUSIONS
• References
• ANNEX 1. SEARCH STRATEGY

Suggested citation:

South J, Jones R, Stansfield J, Bagnall A-M. What quantitative and qualitative methods have been developed to measure health-related community resilience at a national and local level? Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe; 2018 (Health Evidence Network (HEN) synthesis report 60).

The Health Evidence Network

The Health Evidence Network (HEN) is an information service for public health decision-makers in the WHO European Region, in action since 2003 and initiated and coordinated by the WHO Regional Office for Europe under the umbrella of the WHO European Health Information Initiative (a multipartner network coordinating all health information activities in the WHO European Region).

HEN supports public health decision-makers to use the best available evidence in their own decision-making and aims to ensure links between evidence, health policies and improvements in public health. The HEN synthesis report series provides summaries of what is known about the policy issue, the gaps in the evidence and the areas of debate. Based on the synthesized evidence, HEN proposes policy considerations, not recommendations, for policy-makers to formulate their own recommendations and policies within their national context.

HEN and the Evidence for health and well-being in context project

The Evidence for health and well-being in context project was initiated at the WHO Regional Office for Europe in response to Members States' consideration of Health 2020, the European policy framework for health and well-being. Health 2020 includes a number of promising values-based health concepts that are difficult to measure and report on. In response to this challenge, the WHO Regional Office for Europe convened an expert group to investigate ways of enhancing Health 2020 monitoring and reporting. The first meeting of the Expert Group on Enhancing Health 2020 Monitoring and Reporting was convened by the WHO Regional Office for Europe on 1–2 September 2016. Among other things, the Expert Group recommended commissioning this HEN report outlining qualitative and quantitative methods developed to measure community empowerment at a national level.

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ISSN 2227-4316

ISBN 978 92 890 5362 4

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