Abstract
Community health workers (CHWs) continue to play a crucial role in supporting health service delivery globally. Several CHW programmes around the world face vast challenges which affect their performance. This study assessed the performance of CHWs and associated factors in a rural community in Wakiso district, Uganda. This was a cross-sectional study that employed a structured questionnaire to collect quantitative data from 201 CHWs in Wakiso district. The main study variable was CHW performance based on various roles carried out by CHWs. Multivariable logistic regression in STATA was used to establish the predictors of CHW performance. Only 40 (19.9%) of the CHWs had a high performance which was associated with having attended additional / refresher trainings [AOR=12.79 (95% CI: 1.02-159.26)], and having attained secondary level education and above [AOR=3.93 (95% CI: 1.17-13.24)]. CHWs who were married [AOR=0.29 (95% CI: 0.09-0.94)] were less likely to perform highly. Among CHWs who had received essential medicines for treatment of childhood illnesses, the majority 90.3% (112/124) had experienced stock-outs in the 6 months preceding the study. Despite the majority of CHWs, 198 (98.5%), stating that being motivated was very important in their work, only 91 (45%) said that they were motivated. Additional / refresher trainings are necessary to enhance performance of CHWs. In addition, level of education should be considered while selecting CHWs. The health system challenges of low motivation of CHWs as well as stock-out of medicines need to be addressed to support their work.
Highlights
Community health workers (CHWs) continue to play a crucial role in supporting health service delivery globally
Most CHWs served more than 50 households 124 (61.7%), and 129 (64.2%) of them were involved in iCCM
Relationship between community health worker recruitment, training, supervision and motivation with performance There was a statistically significant relationship between having attended additional / refresher trainings [COR=12.54, p=0.001] among
Summary
Community health workers (CHWs) continue to play a crucial role in supporting health service delivery globally. Objectives: This study assessed the performance of CHWs and associated factors in a rural community in Wakiso district, Uganda. Conclusion: Additional / refresher trainings are necessary to enhance performance of CHWs. In addition, level of education should be considered while selecting CHWs. The health system challenges of low motivation of CHWs as well as stock-out of medicines need to be addressed to support their work. Performance of community health workers and associated factors in a rural community in Wakiso district, Uganda. Community health workers may be paid or unpaid depending on the country programme in which they are working, and play a distinct role that can neither be done by professional health workers or the community itself[4]. The significance of CHWs to the improvement of health of populations[2,5] is for example related to their contribution to cost reduction and effectiveness of interventions in many developing countries including Uganda[6,7]
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