The objective of this qualitative study was to assess the knowledge of community health workers (CHW) with respect to aging and dementia, with the purpose of assisting the implantation of caregiving services focused on dementia, in a city in the State of São Paulo. All ethical guidelines were followed. In all, 51 CHW were evaluated. Semi-structured interviews were conducted. The data analysis w...

During the past 10 years, community health workers (CHWs) have emerged as a focal point of international discussions of primary health-care systems. Although lay community-based health workers have been active for at least 60 years, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000 prompted new discussion of how these workers can help to extend primary health care from facilities to communities. ...

BACKGROUND Community health workers (CHWs) provide maternal and child health services to communities in many low and middle-income countries, including South Africa (SA). CHWs can improve access to important health interventions for isolated and vulnerable communities. In this study we explored the performance of CHWs providing maternal and child health services at household level and the quali...

BACKGROUND The important increase in immigration during recent years has changed the epidemiology and control strategies for tuberculosis (TB) in many places. This study evaluates the effectiveness of intervention with community health workers (CHW) to improve contact tracing among immigrants. METHODS The study included all TB cases detected by the Barcelona TB Program from 2000 to 2005 and c...

BACKGROUND Despite well-publicized guidelines on the appropriate management of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, the implementation of risk-reducing practices remains poor. This report describes the results of a randomized, controlled clinical trial evaluating the effectiveness of a comprehensive program of cardiovascular disease risk reduction delivered by nurse practitioner /communi...

BACKGROUND Malaria endemic countries have scaled-up community health worker (CHW) interventions, to diagnose and treat malaria in communities with limited access to public health systems. The evaluations of these programmes have centred on CHW's compliance to guidelines, but the broader changes at public health centres including utilisation and diagnoses made, has received limited attention. ...

BACKGROUND Although evidence-based guidelines on the management of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and type 2 diabetes have been widely published, implementation of recommended therapies is suboptimal. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of a comprehensive program of CVD risk reduction delivered by nurse practitioner/community health worker (NP/CHW) teams versu...

BACKGROUND Beta versions of health information technology tools are needed in service delivery models with health care and community partnerships to confirm the key components and to assess the performance of the tools and their impact on users. We developed a care management technology (CMT) for use by community health workers (CHWs) and care managers (CMs) working collaboratively to improve r...

This paper examines the potential of community health worker (CHW) programmes, as proposed by the 2008 World Health Organisation (WHO) document Task Shifting to tackle health worker shortages, to contribute to HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment and various Millennium Development Goals in low-income countries. It examines the WHO proposal through a literature review of factors that have facilitat...

OBJECTIVES Community health workers (CHWs) have been deployed to provide health-related services to their fellow community members and to guide them through often complex health systems. They help address concerns about how marginalized populations in many countries experience health inequities that are due, in part, to lack of appropriate primary health care services, possibly resulting in ina...