Results: 3069
The effectiveness of peer and community health worker-led self-management support programs for improving diabetes health-related outcomes in adults in low- and-middle-income countries: a systematic review (2020)
Low- and middle-income countries house 80% of all cases of diabetes worldwide. Community-based peer and community health worker-led diabetes self-management programs offer a low-resource strategy to support diabetes management. Mahmoud Werfalli and colleagues surveyed research on these programs to understand how they have been implemented and what their impacts areRead more…
Learning from Community Health Worker programs, big and small (2020)
Interest and investment in Community Health Workers varies depending on the state of the research on the effectiveness of each program. In this commentary, Stephen Hodgins describes how sustained interest can be achieved by increasing cross-communication between small demonstration projects and large programs.
Community level interventions for pre-eclampsia (CLIP) in India: A cluster randomised controlled trial (2020)
Karnataka, India experiences exceptionally high rates of maternal, fetal, and infant deaths. Hypertension during pregnancy increases risk for both eclampsia and maternal death. Mrutunjaya Bellad and colleagues assessed the effectiveness of a CHW-led community-based intervention designed to reduce pregnancy hypertension. Compared to a control group, the community-level intervention did notRead more…
Community-level interventions for pre-eclampsia (CLIP) in Mozambique: A cluster randomised controlled trial (2020)
Mozambique experiences high rates of maternal, fetal, and infant deaths. Hypertension during pregnancy increases risk for both eclampsia and maternal death. Esperança Sevene and colleagues assessed the effectiveness of a CHW-led community-based intervention designed to reduce pregnancy hypertension. Compared to a control group, the community-level intervention led to a 20%Read more…
Enabling and hindering factors of health surveillance assistants’ roles in the provision of contraceptive services in Mangochi, Malawi (2020)
Provision of family planning and contraceptive services represents an essential component for reducing maternal, infant, and child mortality. In recognition of the value of contraception, the Government of Malawi strengthened Health Surveillance Assistants’ (HSAs) capacity to distribute and educate the public about contraceptive services. Maryse Kok conducted interviews with HSAsRead more…
Feasibility, Acceptability, and Efficacy of a Community Health Worker–Driven Approach to Screen Hard-to-Reach Periurban Women Using Self-Sampled HPV Detection Test in India (2020)
Cervical cancer screening is a highly effective preventative measure; one research study resulted in an approximately 50% reduction in new onset of cervical cancer and related mortality following a single HPV screening session. Self-tests for cervical cancer represent an opportunity to extend these services and their benefits to hard-to-reach populations.Read more…
Community engagement interventions for communicable disease control in low- and lower- middle-income countries: evidence from a review of systematic reviews (2020)
A diverse array of approaches exist to encourage community engagement to achieve communicable disease control. K. Questa and colleagues collected 13 systematic reviews of research examining community engagement-related communicable disease control to understand which approaches to engagement exist and what is known about their effectiveness. Approaches included community empowerment andRead more…
Prediagnostic loss to follow-up in an active case finding tuberculosis programme: a mixed-methods study from rural Bihar, India (2020)
The World Health Organization’s End TB strategy seeks to reduce the incidence of tuberculosis by at least 80% by the year 2030, but underreporting and underdiagnosis prevents an accurate assessment of progression toward this goal. Tushar Garg and colleagues assessed whether CHWs could be an effective means for identifying andRead more…
Telephone or Visit-Based Community Health Worker Care Management for Uncontrolled Diabetes Mellitus: A Longitudinal Study (2020)
The best mode of CHW-supported health care for low income, Hispanic patients remains an understudied area of research. Barbara Turner and colleagues assessed health outcomes among Texan, Hispanic patients experiencing Diabetes Mellitus. They followed patients for six months following care management received from CHWs either by telephone only, during clinicRead more…
Severe acute malnutrition treatment delivered by low-literate community health workers in South Sudan: A prospective cohort study (2020)
Interventions deploying CHWs to deliver treatment for severe acute malnutrition (SAM) show great promise for improving the health of children, but sparse research has examined the success of these interventions when provided by illiterate CHWs in low-resource areas such as South Sudan. Naoko Kozuki and colleagues address this gap byRead more…
Effectiveness of a community health worker (CHW) training in monitoring and care of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in rural Gujarat, India (2020)
CHWs in rural primary care settings can contribute to reducing the burden of noncommunicable diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). They are especially valuable in countries like India, where COPD is the second leading cause of disease and is responsible for the deaths of as many as oneRead more…
Unintended pregnancy and maternal health complications: cross-sectional analysis of data from rural Uttar Pradesh, India (2020)
Indian women represent one in every seven of the 85 million women who experience unintended pregnancy each year. This high concentration is likely due to limited engagement with the local health system and puts women at risk of maternal health complications like pre-eclampsia, postpartum hemorrhage, and postpartum pre-eclampsia. Nabamllika DehingiaRead more…
Modelling cost benefit of community-oriented primary care in rural South Africa (2020)
Research demonstrates the effectiveness of CHWs and community-based health programs to expand universal health care to low-income, rural populations. Rod Bennett and his colleagues assessed the cost and feasibility of implementing a CHW program in the Waterberg district of Limpopo province in South Africa, a region that has not yetRead more…
Community gatekeepers and the conundrum of confidentiality and coercion (2020)
This commentary responds to an article by Sunu Thomas (2020) describing concerns about the role of confidentiality when a research participant discloses sensitive personal information while a CHW is present. The author describes concerns about whether CHWs should bridge the gap between communities and researchers and whether their presence duringRead more…
Supporting holistic care for patients with tuberculosis in a remote Indigenous community: a case report. (2020)
Tuberculosis in Australia has been eradicated in nearly all communities, with the exception of rare cases in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander communities. The rarity of this disease presents a challenge to the care of those with positive diagnoses, as local workers may be inexperienced and underprepared to addressRead more…
Qualitative evaluation of a community health representative program on patient experiences in Navajo Nation. (2020)
Members of the Navajo Nation receive home care, health education, and community health promotion from Community Health Representatives (CHRs). CHRs undergo specialized training under the COPE Intervention provided by Community Outreach and Patient Empowerment (COPE) to learn Motivational Interviewing and other culturally appropriate strategies to connect with local community members.Read more…
Effectiveness of a scalable group-based education and monitoring program, delivered by health workers, to improve control of hypertension in rural India: A cluster randomised controlled trial. (2020)
Low- and middle-income countries experience high cases of preventable diseases like hypertension, in part due to a limited supply of trained physicians. Dilan Gamage and his colleagues examined whether CHWs could help improve hypertension management in rural India. CHW training in hypertension management enabled an additional 20% of participants toRead more…
Rapid literature review: Community health workers (2020)
CHWs performed as key actors during the Ebola, Zika, and Marburg outbreaks. Shuchi Srinivasan and Radhika Arora surveyed research examining barriers and facilitators to CHW-based responses to these outbreaks. Some barriers included gaps in knowledge and skills, failure to address PPE-related needs among CHWs, and the mental health impacts ofRead more…
Measuring motivation among close-to-community health workers: developing the CTC Provider Motivational Indicator Scale across six countries (2020)
Close-to-community health service (CTC) providers serve as critical support in low- and middle-income countries with limited access to formalized health care providers. However, motivational challenges cause CTC providers to suffer high rates of turnover. Frederique Vallieres conducted interviews and discussions with CTC providers across six countries to develop a surveyRead more…
Learning from community health worker programs, big and small (2020)
CHW programs demonstrate the potential for great impacts on population health, but interventions sometimes fail as a result of poor transitioning from program piloting to full scale implementation. Stephen Hodgins outlines some of the reasons these programs fail or succeed. He recommends expansions of research conducted both during intervention pilotingRead more…
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