Comprehensive Primary Health Care Programs Research Articles

Mid-level health providers for primary healthcare: a rapid evidence synthesis.

Background: Health care services, in many countries, are increasingly being provided by cadres not trained as physicians, but capable of performing several diagnostic and clinical functions. These substitute health workers are referred to as mid-level health providers (MLHPs). The health and wellness centres under India's Comprehensive Primary Health Care programme have teams led by MLHPs who can aid doctors. The objective of this study was to rapidly synthesise evidence on the effectiveness of MLHPs for primary health care. Methods: The review team undertook a rapid overview of systematic reviews that compared MLHPs with doctors and different types of MLHPs involved in the delivery of health care were included, with a perspective on low- and middle-income countries, including India. Results: Seven systematic reviews were included in the final report. Mortality outcomes in relation to pregnancy and childbirth care services showed no significant differences in care provided by MLHPs when compared with doctors. Pregnancy care provided by midwives was found to slightly improve quality of care when compared to care delivered by doctors. The risk of failure or incomplete abortion for surgical abortion procedures provided by MLHPs was twice when compared to the procedures provided by doctors. Moderate to high certainty evidence showed that initiation and maintenance of antiretroviral therapy for HIV-infected patients by a nurse or clinical officer slightly reduced mortality. High certainty evidence showed that chronic disease management by non-medical prescribers reduced some important physiological measures when compared to medical prescribing by doctors. Conclusions: To date, this is the first rapid overview of evidence on MLHPs. Evidence suggests that MLHPs might be suitable to deliver quality care in certain areas of health and they may be relevant and feasible in countries like India. However, the roles and subsequent training and regulation of MLHPs might be different for different care domains.

Association between anaemia, iron deficiency anaemia, neglected parasitic infections and socioeconomic factors in rural children of West Malaysia.

BackgroundGiven that micronutrient deficiency, neglected intestinal parasitic infections (IPIs) and poor socioeconomic status are closely linked, we conducted a cross-sectional study to assess the relationship between IPIs and nutritional status of children living in remote and rural areas in West Malaysia.Methods/FindingsA total of 550 children participated, comprising 520 (94.5%) school children aged 7 to 12 years old, 30 (5.5%) young children aged 1 to 6 years old, 254 (46.2%) boys and 296 (53.8%) girls. Of the 550 children, 26.2% were anaemic, 54.9% iron deficient and 16.9% had iron deficiency anaemia (IDA). The overall prevalence of helminths was 76.5% comprising Trichuris trichiura (71.5%), Ascaris lumbricoides (41.6%) and hookworm infection (13.5%). It was observed that iron deficiency was significantly higher in girls (p = 0.032) compared to boys. Univariate analysis demonstrated that low level of mother's education (OR = 2.52; 95% CI = 1.38–4.60; p = 0.002), non working parents (OR = 2.18; 95% CI = 2.06–2.31; p = 0.013), low household income (OR = 2.02; 95% CI = 1.14–3.59; p = 0.015), T. trichiura (OR = 2.15; 95% CI = 1.21–3.81; p = 0.008) and A. lumbricoides infections (OR = 1.63; 95% CI = 1.04–2.55; p = 0.032) were significantly associated with the high prevalence of IDA. Multivariate analysis confirmed that low level of mother's education (OR = 1.48; 95 CI% = 1.33–2.58; p<0.001) was a significant predictor for IDA in these children.ConclusionIt is crucial that a comprehensive primary health care programme for these communities that includes periodic de-worming, nutrition supplement, improved household economy, education, sanitation status and personal hygiene are taken into consideration to improve the nutritional status of these children.

Reducing Childhood Mortality From Diarrhea and Lower Respiratory Tract Infections in Brazil

To evaluate the effects of the Family Health Program (FHP), a strategy for reorganization of primary health care in Brazil, on mortality of children younger than 5 years, particularly from diarrheal diseases and lower respiratory tract infections. Mortality rates and the extent of FHP coverage from 2000 to 2005 was evaluated from the 2601 (of 5507) Brazilian municipalities with an adequate quality of vital information. A multivariable regression analysis for panel data was conducted by using a negative binomial model with fixed effects, adjusted for relevant demographic and socioeconomic covariates. A statistically significant negative association was observed between FHP coverage levels, classified as none (the reference category), low (<30%), intermediate (>or=30% and <70%), or high (>or=70%), and all analyzed mortality rates, with a reduction of 4% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 2%-6%), 9% (95% CI: 7%-12%), and 13% (95% CI: 10%-15%), respectively, on mortality rates or children younger than 5. The greatest effect was on postneonatal mortality. Reductions of 31% (95% CI: 20%-40%) and 19% (95% CI: 8%-28%) in mortality rates from diarrheal diseases and lower respiratory infections, respectively, were found in the group of municipalities with the highest FHP coverage. The FHP, one of the largest comprehensive primary health care programs in the world, was effective in reducing overall mortality of children younger than 5, and particularly deaths related to diarrheal diseases and lower respiratory tract infections.

District health programmes in Lao PDR

The Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) is classified by the World Bank as a low-income country under stress. Development partners have sought to utilize effective aid instruments to help countries classified in this way achieve the Millennium Development Goals; these aid instruments include sector-wide approaches (SWAps) that support decentralized district health systems and seek to avoid fragmentation and duplication. In Asia and the Pacific, only Bangladesh, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands have adopted SWAps. Since 1991, a comprehensive primary health care programme in the remote Sayaboury Province of Lao PDR has focused on strengthening district health management, improving access to health facilities and responding to the most common causes of mortality and morbidity among women and children. Between 1996 and 2003, health-facility utilization tripled, and the proportion of households that have access to a facility increased to 92% compared with only 61% nationally. By 2003, infant and child mortality rates were less than one-third of the national rates. The maternal mortality ratio decreased by 50% despite comprehensive emergency obstetric care not being available in most district hospitals. These trends were achieved with an investment of approximately 4 million US dollars over 12 years (equivalent to US 1.00 US dollars per person per year). However, this project did not overcome weaknesses in some national disease-control programmes, especially the expanded programme on immunization, that require strong central management. In Lao PDR, which is not yet committed to using SWAps, tools developed in Sayaboury could help other district health offices assume greater planning responsibilities in the recently decentralized system. Development partners should balance their support for centrally managed disease-specific programmes with assistance to horizontally integrated primary health care at the district level.

User fees plus quality equals improved access to health care: Results of a field experiment in Cameroon

Since the Bamako Initiative was launched in 1988, many African countries have embarked on comprehensive primary health care programs relying, at least partially, on revenues generated through user fees to revitalize health care delivery systems. Although these programs contain two critical components, user fees and improved quality, policy debates have tended to focus on the former and disregarded the latter. The purpose of this study is to provide a net assessment of these two components by testing how user fees and improved quality affect health facility utilization among the overall population and specifically among the poorest people. A “pretest-posttest controlled” experiment was conducted in five public health facilities in the Adamaoua province of Cameroon. Three health centers which were to introduce a user fee and quality improvement (i.e. reliable drug supply) policy were selected as “treatment” centers and two comparable facilities not yet phased into this policy were selected as “controls”. Two rounds of household surveys were conducted (each to 800 households in 25 villages surrounding the five study sites) to measure the percentage of ill people seeking care at the health center before and after the implementation of the policy. The experiment was tightly controlled by conducting monthly observations at each study site. Results indicate that the probability of using the health center increased significantly for people in the “treatment” areas compared to those in the “control” areas. Travel and time costs involved in seeking alternative sources of care are high; when good quality drugs became available at the local health center, the fee charged for care and treatment represented an effective reduction in the price of care and thus utilization rose. Moreover, contrary to previous studies which have found that the poorest quintile is most hurt by user fees, this study found that probability of the poorest quintile seeking care increases at a rate proportionately greater than the rest of the population. Since the poor are most responsive to price changes, they appear to be benefitting from local availability of drugs more than others.

Gobi versus PHC? Some dangers of selective primary health care

This article enters the debate concerning comprehensive versus selective primary health care by focusing on UNICEF's ‘child survival revolution’. It is argued that UNICEF is dangerously mistaken in believing that its present emphasis on selective primary health care is a precursor or ‘leading edge’ of comprehensive primary health care. The approach of UNICEF—diffusion of a package of technologies by campaigns organized from the top down—is more likely to undermine the social basis for comprehensive care. The kinds of implementation UNICEF has chosen in order to minimize costs and maximize impact on child mortality, namely ‘social marketing’ via mass media and massive, ad hoc delivery systems seriously undermine the development of grassroots organization among parents and primary health care workers. Indigenuous, local organizations are distorted and limited to conduits of a delivery system. Needs are defined outside the communities affected. In addition, UNICEF's so-called revolution has in common with other selective approaches an ideology accepting as inevitable the health effects of economic crisis in the 1980s, further undermining the confidence of local groups and health workers who might otherwise conceive of their desire to control health conditions as a right. The UNICEF interventions popularly known as GOBI-FFF are ‘targetted’ at individuals, in particular ‘ignorant’ mothers. As such they are especially destructive to the process of group formation and self-organization of the poor around their just demands for water and sanitation, land, shelter, and employment. This article concludes that UNICEF's GOBI should either be abandoned or integrated into comprehensive primary health care programs that put parents and local workers in control and that emphasize continuing political struggle for health rights.