BACKGROUND Given the rising trend in early childhood caries (ECC) and the wide disparities that exist in pediatric oral health, risk assessment for ECC has become increasingly important. The purpose of this paper is to describe lessons learned from an Interprofessional Collaboration (IPC) approach in the planning, development, and pilot testing of an electronic interactive ECC risk assessment a...

Community health workers (CHWs) are promoted as a mechanism to increase community involvement in health promotion efforts, despite little consensus about the role and its effectiveness. This article reviews the databased literature on CHW effectiveness, which indicates preliminary support for CHWs in increasing access to care, particularly in underserved populations. There are a smaller number ...

BACKGROUND Supervision is meant to improve the performance and motivation of community health workers (CHWs). However, most evidence on supervision relates to facility health workers. The Integrated Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health (MNCH) Program in Morogoro region, Tanzania, implemented a CHW pilot with a cascade supervision model where facility health workers were trained in supportive sup...

BACKGROUND Community health worker (CHW) programmes have received much attention since the 1978 Declaration of Alma-Ata, with many initiatives established in developing countries. However, CHW programmes often suffer high attrition once the initial enthusiasm of volunteers wanes. In 2002, Uganda began implementing a national CHW programme called the village health teams (VHTs), but their perfor...

I ntegrated community case management (iCCM) has been endorsed and promoted by WHO, UNICEF, USAID, and other major international organizations as a high-impact strategy to increase access to treatments for the leading causes of child mortality—diarrhea, pneumonia, and malaria. Because it relies on health workers based in the community, iCCM improves access and timeliness of treatment, and the i...

We studied the effect of using Motivational Interviewing Intervention (MII) on health facility delivery and newborn care practices among pregnant women receiving Care of the Mother and Newborn at Home (CNH) visits by Community Health Workers (CHWs). Near-Term women who had received at least one CHW home visit, were randomly assigned to one session of MII (intervention) or no MII (Control). Fift...

BACKGROUND Stroke is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. There is a paucity of data from South Asia where stroke is highly prevalent. Validated tools administrable by community health workers (CHWs) are required to identify stroke in the community in a resource-strapped region such as this. METHODS The study was conducted in a transitional slum in Karachi, Pakistan. Question...

BACKGROUND In India, community health workers' (CHW) effectiveness in providing home-based neonatal care (HBNC) has been well documented. The nature of challenges faced and strategies adopted while providing HBNC services need to be studied in-depth. METHODS A qualitative study to understand the challenges faced and strategies used by Sakhis (women CHW) while providing services as part of a H...

Background Countries with health workforce shortages are increasingly turning to multipurpose community health workers (CHWs) to extend integrated services to the community-level. However, there may be tradeoffs with the number of tasks a CHW can effectively perform before quality and/or productivity decline. This qualitative study was conducted within an existing program in Iringa, Tanza...

A systematic literature review was conducted to assess the effectiveness of strategies to improve community case management (CCM) of malaria. Forty-three studies were included; most (38) reported indicators of community health worker (CHW) performance, 14 reported on malaria CCM integrated with other child health interventions, 16 reported on health system capacity, and 13 reported on referral....