Abstract
BackgroundThe role of village health workers (VHWs), among other roles is to educate communities about tuberculosis (TB), TB screening and its treatment. The knowledge of TB among VHWs is crucial because they will carry out their role at the community well and this will impact the overall outcome of TB treatment.AimThe study is aimed at assessing the knowledge of TB among VHWs and households at the village level and the utilisation of VHWs’ TB services.SettingThe study took place in 19 health centres from 10 districts of Lesotho.MethodsThe study used a cross-sectional descriptive design. Three study populations were interviewed, two at the household level (2040 households, 8295 individuals) and one at the clinic level (723 VHW).ResultsOverall, TB knowledge among VHWs for the majority of clinics except two was inadequate (below mean of 31.5). The utilisation of VHWs’ TB services among community members was also low.ConclusionLow utilisation of VHWs’ TB services by community members emanated from inadequate TB knowledge of VHWs. Regular refresher training among VHWs is recommended as the way forward in order to keep VHWs abreast with new TB developments.
Highlights
More than half (54%) of the household members had finished their primary level education compared to a quarter (25%) who had done secondary education or better
Improved TB treatment outcomes are not likely to be realised in the http://www.phcfm.org near future before inadequate TB knowledge among village health worker (VHW) is addressed through rigorous training
It might be in order to investigate the perceptions of community members on the role of the VHWs in their villages
Summary
Worldwide community health workers (CHWs) are expected to promote good health practices in the community through health education in matters that are of concern in the country.[1,2,3,4] The most important matters of concern currently in Lesotho are a failure to meet Millennium Development Goals targets in HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), maternal and child mortality of which a village health worker (VHW) can play a vital role as one of the community members where she lives.[2,5,6] For the VHWs to provide meaningful education to the community, he/she must have adequate information and knowledge about how to help to improve the health outcomes of TB2,3,7 the need to establish the level of knowledge of VHWs against the Ministry of Health’s VHWs training manual curriculum. The criterion used for the selection of VHWs is stipulated in the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MOHSW) training manual and is in line with practices in other countries.[7,8] According to the criterion for a person to be selected, he or she must be a full-time resident of the village with no other responsibilities. He or she must be elected by the village itself and be literate. The knowledge of TB among VHWs is crucial because they will carry out their role at the community well and this will impact the overall outcome of TB treatment
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