In primary health care, a community diagnosis is necessary to provide a detailed description of the community as well as an evaluation of the community’s health, including the main factors responsible for it and the needs felt by the population. This article presents a community health diagnosis following a participatory design, taking the perspective of women living in the community, to identify proposals for action. An ethnographic study was carried out in the community of Mañaria (Spain), using semi-structured interviews, in-depth interviews, key informants, participant observation, desk review, and photography. A sample of 21 women were interviewed until reaching saturation of the information. This information was complemented by that provided by five key informants. Data analysis included text analysis, coding, and categorization. Preliminary results were presented to the informants for validation and further refinement, and proposals for action were identified and followed up. Six categories were identified, representing different areas of intervention: population, jobs and economy, public and private spaces, lifestyles, processes of socialization, and health care assets. For each of these areas, the main problems were identified, as were the health care assets and proposals for action. The community diagnosis has been shown to be useful not only to identify health needs but also as an efficacious instrument to trigger social and public health actions that may be undertaken at the institutional level.

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Salutogenesis focuses on factors that generate health and is a useful construct for identifying factors that promote health and for guiding activities to this end. This article describes health assets identified in a community diagnosis and how to leverage them with actions for improvement to deepen the understanding of this concept and its impact on health promotion. An intervention strategy was designed following the principles of participatory action research (PAR). The study was carried out in Mañaria (Basque Country, Spain) using semi-structured and in-depth interviews, participant observation, desk review, and photographs, alongside different participatory strategies. Twenty-six women were interviewed, 21 of whom were community inhabitants, and five were key informants who worked in public or private institutions. Participant recruitment stopped when data saturation was reached. Data were analysed through discourse analysis, progressive coding, and categorisation. Six meta-categories emerged, and for each of these categories, health assets were identified together with actions to improve the community’s health. The latter were presented by the community to the authorities to trigger specific actions towards improving the health of the community. Identification of health assets led to different actions to improve the health of the community including improving the existing physical and social environments, personal and group skills, and the promotion of physical, social, emotional and cultural well-being.