Community Health Worker programmes’ integration into national health systems: Scoping review

African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Community Health Worker programmes’ integration into national health systems: Scoping review
 
Creator Mupara, Lucia M. Mogaka, John J.O. Brieger, William R. Tsoka-Gwegweni, Joyce M.
 
Subject Public Health; Primary Health care; Community health community health work; Integration; CHW programmes; health systems strengthening; national health systems; improved health outcomes; Sub-Saharan Africa.
Description Background: Community health worker (CHW) programmes, when adequately integrated into mainstream health systems, can provide a viable, affordable and sustainable path to strengthened health systems that better meets demands for improved child health, especially in resource-constrained settings. However, studies that report on how CHW programmes are integrated into respective health systems in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are missing.Aim: This review presents evidence on CHW programmes’ integration into National Health Systems for improved health outcomes in SSA.Setting: Sub-Saharan Africa.Method: Six CHW programmes representing three sub-Saharan regions (West, East, and Southern Africa) were purposively selected based on their deemed integration into respective National Health Systems. A database search of literature limited to the identified programmes was then conducted. Screening and literature selection was guided a scoping review framework. Abstracted data were synthesised and presented in a narrative form.Results: A total of 42 publications met the inclusion criteria. Reviewed papers had an even focus on all six CHW programmes integration components. Although some similarities were observed, evidence of integration on most CHW programme integration components varied across countries. The linkage of CHW programmes to respective health systems runs across all reviewed countries. Some CHW programme components such as CHW recruitment, education and certification, service delivery, supervision, information management, and equipment and supplies are integrated into the health systems differently across the region.Conclusion: Different approaches to the integration of all the components depict complexity in the field of CHW programme integration in the region.Contribution: The study presents synthesized evidence on CHW programmes integration into national health systems in SSA.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor None
Date 2023-03-09
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Review
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/phcfm.v15i1.3204
 
Source African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine; Vol 15, No 1 (2023); 16 pages 2071-2936 2071-2928
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/3204/6126 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/3204/6127 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/3204/6128 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/3204/6129
 
Coverage Sub-Saharan Africa; Africa 2010-2018 Published articles
Rights Copyright (c) 2023 Lucia M. Mupara, John J.O. Mogaka, William R. Brieger, Joyce M. Tsoka-Gwegweni https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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