BACKGROUND An adequate health workforce force is central to universal health coverage and positive public health outcomes. However many African countries have critical shortages of healthcare workers, which are worse in primary healthcare. The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions of healthcare workers, policy makers and the community on the shortage of healthcare workers in Botswana...

BACKGROUND Primary health care is a set of health services that can meet the needs of the developing world. Community health workers act as a bridge between health system and community in providing this care. Appropriate knowledge and communication skills of the workers are key to their confidence and elementary for the success of the system. We conducted this study to document the perceptions ...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE Immunization coverage in India is far from complete with a disproportionately large number of rural children not being immunized. We carried out this study to examine the role of health infrastructure and community health workers in expanding immunization coverage in rural India. METHODS The sample consisted of 43,416 children aged 2-35 months residing in rural India fr...

There has been little empirical research into misconduct and misbehavior among community research workers who recruit and collect data in vulnerable and marginalized health populations and are also members of those same communities. We conducted qualitative interviews with community research workers and traditional research assistants to understand the context and consequences of misbehaviors t...

BACKGROUND Traditional medicine (TM) still plays an important role in a number of health care systems around the world, especially across Asian and African countries. In Vietnam, however, little is known about preference for traditional medicine use. This study assessed the prevalence of use, preference, satisfaction, and willingness to pay for TM services amongst rural ethnic minority communit...

BACKGROUND Community health worker motivation is an important consideration for improving performance and addressing maternal, newborn, and child health in low and middle-income countries. Therefore, identifying health system interventions that address motivating factors in resource-strained settings is essential. This study is part of a larger implementation research project called Nigraan, wh...

In order to tackle some of the most basic shortcomings and inequities in care among rural populations, it has been suggested that the people themselves could help to provide for their own health care and thus decrease their dependency on outside health care systems wi th their high costs. While this idea met wi th an initial howl of protest f rom most professional groups, it has nevertheless be...