Healthcare Priorities, Barriers, and Preferences According to a Community Health Needs Assessment in Jazan, Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study.

: Community needs assessments can provide valuable insights concerning the health of communities. This study aims to measure health priorities according to community members in Jazan, Saudi Arabia, to assess healthcare service utilization, barriers to accessing these services, and preferences for utilizing government or private healthcare services. : Multistage sampling was utilized to reach a sample of adults in community settings. The assessment was performed via personal interviews utilizing a structured questionnaire to measure demographics, health priorities, service utilization, barriers, and preferences for healthcare settings. Chi-squared tests, Student's -tests, and multivariate regression analysis were used to assess the differences between demographics and service utilization according to the preferred healthcare settings. : A total of 3411 participants were recruited for the assessment. The mean age of the participants was 34 years, and 51% were male. The participants viewed diabetes as the most important health condition. Emergency services and primary care were viewed as the most important healthcare services, and time constraints were the main barriers to healthcare accessibility. Thirty-six percent of the participants preferred to utilize healthcare services in the private sector, where age, gender, nationality, education, income, housing type, and family size were statistically associated with the preference for seeking healthcare in either the private or government sectors ( < 0.05). : Future assessment is required to recruit healthcare providers and decision-makers to understand the process of strengthening multidisciplinary collaboration to tackle chronic diseases such as diabetes, strengthen the role of emergency and primary healthcare services, and address time constraints pertaining to healthcare accessibility.