Community Health Assessment
A Community Health Assessment (CHA) is the study of local population health, which identifies key health conditions and needs among county residents. The CHA process includes community engagement about health experiences and concerns as well as data and trend analysis from a variety of sources. Saint Paul - Ramsey County Public Health publishes a community health assessment every five years with ongoing evaluation and updates as needed.
Introduction and overview
These sections provide a description of the Ramsey County environment, demographics and general health status of the community.
Health topics
The Community Health Assessment includes data and trend analysis for 120 health topics that together describe conditions of health across Ramsey County. These topics are formatted as two-page summaries, each of which describes: what is being measured and why it is important; how we compare locally to regional, state or national benchmarks; health disparities by race, ethnicity, geography, gender, or age; and what Ramsey County government is doing to improve the health of the community regarding each health topic. Full health topic list (PDF)
Health topics:
- Access to Health Care
- Causes of Death
- Chronic Disease
- Crime
- Economic Conditions
- Environmental Health
- Healthy Food
- Infectious Diseases
- Injury
- Mental Health
- Babies, Children & Families
- Nutrition, Physical Activity & Obesity
- Oral Health
- Parks & Streets
- Tobacco, Alcohol & Substance Use
- Youth Experiences
Health reports: Addendum
Periodically there is a need for more in-depth exploration of a topic to investigate an emerging issue and to better understand the health status of our residents. Below are reports that provide the opportunity to dig deeper into a specific area of concern. The reports are provided in PDF format.
Sexual Violence
The report below was created in April 2019 to examine the complex issue of sexual violence using multiple sources of data, including information from Minnesota Uniform Crime Reports, Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Minnesota Student Survey, and Saint Paul – Ramsey County Public Health.
Vaccination Insights
The report below was created with community engagement in June 2021 to better understand community hesitation to receive COVID vaccinations and find better ways to reach people who have not yet been vaccinated.
Food Insecurity
The report below is the summary of a community engagement initiative conducted in July 2022 to identify common themes of gaps that Ramsey County residents experience around food security and find opportunities to close those gaps in order to increase food security.
Adult Health Survey
The report below is the analysis of a health survey conducted in October-December 2021 that includes aggregated responses from approximately 1000 Ramsey County residents. Topics include data on general health, physical health, mental health, chronic health conditions, health care access, tobacco use, exercise, and nutrition.
Community engagement
Staff engaged more than 2100 residents from across Ramsey County between December 2017 and April 2018 to learn what helps individuals, families and communities stay healthy and what keeps them from being healthy.
How and why we do it
The Community Health Assessment is done:
- To improve our understanding of community experience, particularly as it affects individual, family, and community health.
- To engage in the work of advancing racial and health equity with hope for the future: It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the severity of health inequities. With the wisdom of many we can steer collective efforts toward meaningful change.
- To share information that supports people and organizations in Ramsey County developing their own plans for improving health.
- To guide county and department priorities and support strategic planning and quality improvement efforts.
- To meet state statute (MN Statute 145A) and national accreditation requirements.
Learn how the Community Health Assessment is developed:
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