Abstract
BackgroundEthiopia has been deploying specially trained new cadres of community based health workers in urban areas of the country known as urban health extension professionals since 2009. At present, relatively little work has focused on understanding to what extent this new program is accepted and used by the community.MethodsBoth qualitative and quantitative surveys were performed from March 10, 2012 to March 25, 2012 to explore the utilization of urban health extension services in Bishoftu Town, Oromia regional state, Central Ethiopia using a cross sectional study design. Qualitative data were collected using a total of 4 focus group discussions and 26 in-depth interviews. Quantitative data were collected from 418 randomly selected households using pre-tested, structured, interviewer-administered questionnaires. Data entry and analysis were done using SPSS version 16.0. Qualitative data were analyzed thematically.ResultsOf the 418 interviewed households, 72.8% of them had at least one service related contact with urban health extension professionals in the previous 6 month. The mean frequency of service related contact with Urban Health Extension Professionals was found to be 2.24 (±1) contacts per 6 months. The total number of households graduated as a model family in the study area was 3974 (14.3%). Though participants felt that urban health extension professionals faced community resistance at program implementation, its acceptability greatly improved in this study. Despite this, individual competencies of urban health extension professionals, availability of supply and logistic system, and the level of support from kebele officials were reported to influence the program acceptability and utilization.ConclusionsThe introduction of urban health extension professionals positively changed the attitude of the majority of the households involved and improved the acceptability of the program. All stake holders, governmental and nongovernmental organizations, should have supportive systems to increase the acceptability and utilization of urban health extension services.
Highlights
Ethiopia has been deploying specially trained new cadres of community based health workers in urban areas of the country known as urban health extension professionals since 2009
This study revealed that Urban Health Extension Professionals individual characteristics, like communication skills, affected levels of activity and the use of healthy interventions
This study found that Urban Health Extension Professionals were unable to carry out all of their given tasks
Summary
Ethiopia has been deploying specially trained new cadres of community based health workers in urban areas of the country known as urban health extension professionals since 2009. The increase in urban population density of Ethiopian cities is a direct result of the expansion of the cities, followed by the movement of people from rural areas to cities This urged the Ethiopian government to introduce innovative community based programs in order to promote health, prevent diseases and increase access to the treatment of communicable diseases in the urban area. The urban health extension program is organized as a component of other urban health services and aims to create a healthy community, a healthy living environment and a healthy work place They plan to accomplish this, using female nurse professional trained on health extension program to achieve the principles of Primary Health Care (PHC) [1]. The Ethiopian government has introduced an innovative health service delivery system through the implementation of the Health Service Extension Programme (HEP) [4, 5]
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