Maternal antenatal depression has long-term consequences for children’s health. We examined if home visits by community health workers (CHW) can improve growth outcomes for children of mothers who are antenatally depressed. Maternal and child health intervention strategies have tended to address only one health risk at a time. As a result many studies provide little insight … [Read more...] about Community health workers can improve child growth of antenatally-depressed, South African mothers: a cluster randomized controlled trial
South Africa
A systematic review of community-to-facility neonatal referral completion rates in Africa and Asia
An estimated 2.8 million neonatal deaths occur annually worldwide, three-quarters in Africa and Asia. These deaths are due largely to preventable causes, with neonatal infection accounting for 24% of all neonatal deaths. In low-resource community-based settings, care-seeking for neonatal illnesses can be triggered through two paths. One is through household … [Read more...] about A systematic review of community-to-facility neonatal referral completion rates in Africa and Asia
Comparing a paper based monitoring and evaluation system to a mHealth system to support the national community health worker programme, South Africa: an evaluation
In an attempt to address a complex disease burden, including improving progress towards MDGs 4 and 5, South Africa recently introduced a re-engineered Primary Health Care (PHC) strategy, which has led to the development of a national community health worker (CHW) programme. The present study explored the development of a cell phone-based and paper-based … [Read more...] about Comparing a paper based monitoring and evaluation system to a mHealth system to support the national community health worker programme, South Africa: an evaluation
Hypertension education and adherence in South Africa: a cost-effectiveness analysis of community health workers
Of the non-communicable diseases (NCDs), hypertension is a major burden in general and in particular in South Africa with trends showing a growth of 20% for both men and women over the past decade. Of further significance is that adherence to hypertension medication varies significantly from under 10% in the lowest socio-economic status (SES) quintile compared to 80% in the … [Read more...] about Hypertension education and adherence in South Africa: a cost-effectiveness analysis of community health workers
An assessment of community health workers’ ability to screen for cardiovascular disease risk with a simple, non-invasive risk assessment instrument in Bangladesh, Guatemala, Mexico, and South Africa: an observational study
Cardiovascular disease contributes substantially to the non-communicable disease (NCD) burden in low- income and middle-income countries, which also often have substantial health personnel shortages. In this observational study we investigated whether community health workers could do community-based screenings to predict cardiovascular disease risk as effectively as could … [Read more...] about An assessment of community health workers’ ability to screen for cardiovascular disease risk with a simple, non-invasive risk assessment instrument in Bangladesh, Guatemala, Mexico, and South Africa: an observational study

