Community Health Workers’ knowledge, attitudes and practices about malaria prevention in Gicumbi District, Rwanda

Introduction: Community health workers (CHWs) play an integral role in Sierra Leone's health systems strengthening efforts. Our goal was to understand CHWs' experiences of providing immunization and malaria prevention services in urban settings and explore opportunities to optimize their contributions to these services.Methods: In 2018, we conducted an exploratory qualitative assessment in the Western Area Urban district, which covers most of the capital city of Freetown. We purposively selected diverse health facilities (i.e., type, ownership, setting) and recruited CHWs through their supervisors. We conducted eight focus group discussions (FGD) with CHWs, which were audio-recorded. The topics explored included participants' background, responsibilities and priorities of urban CHWs, sources of motivation at work, barriers to CHWs' immunization and malaria prevention activities, and strategies used to address these barriers. The local research team transcribed and translated FGDs into English; then we used qualitative content analysis to identify themes.Results: Four themes emerged from the qualitative content analysis: (1) pride, compassion, recognition, and personal benefits are important motivating factors to keep working as CHWs; (2) diverse health responsibilities and competing priorities result in overburdening of CHWs; (3) health system- and community-level barriers negatively affect CHWs' activities and motivation; (4) CHWs use context-specific strategies to address challenges in their work but require further support.Conclusion: Focused support for CHWs is needed to optimize their contributions to immunization and malaria prevention activities. Such interventions should be coupled with systems-level efforts to address the structural barriers that negatively affect CHWs' overall work and motivation, such as the shortage of work supplies and the lack of promised financial support.

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Towards a framework for analyzing determinants of performance of community health workers in malaria prevention and control: a systematic review

Human Resources for Health ◽

10.1186/s12960-018-0284-x ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 16 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Helen Mwiinga Chipukuma ◽

Joseph Mumba Zulu ◽

Choolwe Jacobs ◽

Gershom Chongwe ◽

Mumbi Chola ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Community Health ◽

Community Health Workers ◽

Prevention And Control ◽

Health Workers ◽

Malaria Prevention ◽

And Control

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Community health worker knowledge, attitudes and practices towards COVID-19: Learnings from an online cross-sectional survey using a digital health platform, UpSCALE, in Mozambique

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0244924 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (2) ◽

pp. e0244924

Author(s):

Mitra Feldman ◽

Vera Lacey Krylova ◽

Poppy Farrow ◽

Laura Donovan ◽

Edson Zandamela ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Community Health ◽

Health Workers ◽

Digital Health ◽

Rapid Development ◽

Cross Sectional Survey ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Attitudes And Practices ◽

Asymptomatic Patients ◽

Kap Survey ◽

Knowledge Attitudes And Practices

Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at the frontline of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic response, yet there is a paucity of literature on their knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) in relation to the pandemic. Community Health Workers (CHWs) in Mozambique are known locally as agentes polivalentes elementares (APEs). While technical guidance surrounding COVID-19 is available to support APEs, communicating this information has been challenging due to restrictions on travel, face-to-face group meetings and training, imposed from May to August 2020. A digital health platform, upSCALE, that already supports 1,213 APEs and 299 supervisors across three provinces, is being used to support APEs on effective COVID-19 management by delivering COVID-19 sensitive SMS messages, training modules and a COVID-19 KAP survey. The KAP survey, conducted from June 2020 to August 2020, consisted of 10 questions. Of 1,065 active upSCALE APEs, 28% completed the survey. Results indicate that only a small proportion of APEs listed the correct COVID-19 symptoms, transmission routes and appropriate prevention measures (n = (25%), n = (16%) and n = (39%), respectively) specifically included in national health education materials. Misconceptions were mainly related to transmission routes, high risk individuals and asymptomatic patients. 84% said they followed all government prevention guidelines. The results from the KAP survey were used to support the rapid development and deployment of targeted COVID-19 awareness and education materials for the APEs. A follow-up KAP survey is planned for November 2020. Adapting the existing upSCALE platform enabled a better understanding, in real time, of the KAP of APEs around COVID-19 management. Subsequently, supporting delivery of tailored messages and education, vital for ensuring a successful COVID-19 response.

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Community health worker knowledge, attitudes and practices towards COVID-19: learnings from an online cross-sectional survey using a digital health platform, UpSCALE, in Mozambique

10.1101/2020.11.05.20216606 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Mitra Feldman ◽

Vera Lacey Krylova ◽

Poppy Farrow ◽

Laura Donovan ◽

Edson Zandamela ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Community Health ◽

Health Workers ◽

Digital Health ◽

Rapid Development ◽

Attitudes And Practices ◽

Asymptomatic Patients ◽

Kap Survey ◽

Survey Results ◽

Training Modules ◽

Knowledge Attitudes And Practices

AbstractHealthcare workers (HCWs) are at the frontline of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic response, yet there is a paucity of literature on their knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) in relation to the pandemic. Community Health Workers (CHWs) in Mozambique are known locally as agentes polivalentes elementares (APEs). While technical guidance surrounding COVID-19 is available to support APEs, communicating this information has been challenging due to restrictions on travel, face-to-face group meetings and training, imposed from May to August 2020. A digital health platform, upSCALE, that already supports 1,213 APEs and 299 supervisors across three provinces, is being used to support APEs on effective COVID-19 management by delivering COVID-19 sensitive SMS messages, training modules and a COVID-19 KAP survey.The KAP survey, conducted from June 2020 to August 2020, consisted of 10 questions. Of 1,065 active upSCALE APEs, 28 percent completed the survey. Results indicate that only a small proportion of APEs listed the correct COVID-19 symptoms, transmission routes and appropriate prevention measures (25 percent, 16 percent and 39 percent, respectively) specifically included in national health education materials. Misconceptions were mainly related to transmission routes, high risk individuals and asymptomatic patients. 84 percent said they followed all government prevention guidelines. The results from the KAP survey were used to support the rapid development and deployment of targeted COVID-19 awareness and education materials for the APEs. SMS messages were continually adjusted based on the KAP survey results and a series of seven COVID-19 training modules were developed and disseminated. A follow-up KAP survey is planned for November 2020.Adapting the existing upSCALE platform enabled a better understanding, in real time, of the KAP of APEs around COVID-19 management. Subsequently, supported improved delivery of tailored messages and education, vital for ensuring a successful COVID-19 response.

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