BACKGROUND There is a renewed interest in community health workers (CHWs) in Tanzania, but also a concern that low motivation of CHWs may decrease the benefits of investments in CHW programs. This study aimed to explore sources of CHW motivation to inform programs in Tanzania and similar contexts. METHODS We conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 CHWs in Morogoro Region, Tanzania. Inter...

BACKGROUND The Kabeho Mwana project (2006-2011) supported the Rwanda Ministry of Health (MOH) in scaling up integrated community case management (iCCM) of childhood illness in 6 of Rwanda's 30 districts. The project trained and equipped community health workers (CHWs) according to national guidelines. In project districts, Kabeho Mwana staff also trained CHWs to conduct household-level health p...

BACKGROUND Haiti is among the countries facing serious shortages in human resources for healthcare. In rural Haiti, the need for daily, long-term adherence to medication for HIV and TB was initially the driving factor for recruitment of community health workers (CHW) during scale-up of HIV services. Their role became broader over time. This qualitative study evaluated the role of CHW in the hea...

OBJECTIVE To pilot-test the feasibility and preliminary effect of a community health worker (CHW) intervention to reduce hospital readmissions. DESIGN Patient-level randomized quality improvement intervention. SETTING An academic medical center serving a predominantly low-income population in the Boston, Massachusetts area and 10 affiliated primary care practices. PARTICIPANTS Medical ser...

We used data from a home visiting trial to examine low-income women's perceptions of services received from nurses (the community care [CC] group) and from a nurse-community health worker (CHW) team. More mothers in the nurse-CHW group than in the CC group reported receiving help in all of the categories assessed. For both groups, assistance with health education ranked highest among the types ...

Background Community health worker (CHW) interventions to manage childhood illness is a strategy promoted by the global health community which involves training and supporting CHW to assess, classify and treat sick children at home, using an algorithm adapted from the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI). To inform CHW policy, the Government of Tanzania launched a program in ...

BACKGROUND In Mozambique, integrated community case management (iCCM) of diarrhoea, malaria and pneumonia is embedded in the national community health worker (CHW) programme, mainstreaming it into government policy and service delivery. Since its inception in 1978, the CHW programme has functioned unevenly, was suspended in 1989, but relaunched in 2010. To assess the long-term success of iCCM i...

BACKGROUND This study was designed to quantify the resources used in reestablishing contact with women who missed their scheduled cervical cancer screening visits and to assess the success of this effort in reducing loss to follow-up in a developing country setting. METHODS Women were enrolled in this Cape Town, South Africa-based screening study between 2000 and 2003, and all had scheduled f...

Background National community health worker (CHW) programmes are increasingly regarded as an integral component of primary healthcare (PHC) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). At the interface of the formal health system and communities, CHW programmes evolve in context specific ways, with unique cadres and a variety of vertical and horizontal relationships. These programmes need...

BACKGROUND The shortage in human resources for health affects most dramatically developing countries which frequently use community health workers (CHW) as the basis for health programmes and services. The traditional definition refers CHWs as members of the community who are recruited and trained in health prevention and promotion to provide services within their community. In Guinea-Bissau, C...