SynthesisThe Pan African medical journal2013
The impact of community health workers (CHWs) on Buruli ulcer in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review.
Synthesis in The Pan African medical journal, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- Community health volunteers could help improve access to and use of essential health services by communities in LMICs: an umbrella review.Health policy and planning · 2018Pooled it
- What do we know about community-based health worker programs? A systematic review of existing reviews on community health workers.Human resources for health · 2018Pooled it
- The Role of Nurses and Community Health Workers in Confronting Neglected Tropical Diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2016Pooled it
- Challenges and opportunities of human resource management activities for neglected tropical diseases in Liberia.SSM - health systems · 2025Article
- Knowledge, attitude and practices of buruli ulcer among residents in Jasikan municipality of Ghana: an ethnographic study.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Systematic review: Global host range, case fatality and detection rates ofJournal of clinical tuberculosis and other mycobacterial diseases · 2024Review
- Role and capacity needs of community based surveillance volunteers in the integrated management of skin neglected tropical diseases (skin NTDs): a qualitative study from central Ghana.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Stakeholder perspectives on a door-to-door intervention to increase community engagement for malaria elimination in Zanzibar.Malaria journal · 2023Article
- Article
- Utilising community volunteers can increase the detection and referral of Buruli ulcer cases in endemic communities in Southeast, Nigeria.Tropical diseases, travel medicine and vaccines · 2022Article
- Article
- Skin disease prevalence study in schoolchildren in rural Côte d'Ivoire: Implications for integration of neglected skin diseases (skin NTDs).PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2018Article
- Report of a series of 82 cases of Buruli ulcer from Nigeria treated in Benin, from 2006 to 2016.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2018Article
- Community knowledge, perceptions and attitudes regarding leprosy in rural Cameroon: The case of Ekondotiti and Mbonge health districts in the South-west Region.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2018Article
- Perception and incidence of Buruli ulcer in Ogun State, South West Nigeria: intensive epidemiological survey and public health intervention recommended.The Pan African medical journal · 2018Article
- Article
- The global pendulum swing towards community health workers in low- and middle-income countries: a scoping review of trends, geographical distribution and programmatic orientations, 2005 to 2014.Human resources for health · 2016Article
- Buruli ulcer control in a highly endemic district in Ghana: role of community-based surveillance volunteers.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2015Article
- Contribution of the community health volunteers in the control of Buruli ulcer in Bénin.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
unlabelledBuruli ulcer (BU) is a cutaneous neglected tropical disease caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans. Participation of Community Health Workers (CHWs) is an integral part of the management of BU, yet their impact has not been systematically evaluated in sub-Saharan Africa.
methodsOur objectives were to summarize the evidence on the impact of CHWs on the control of BU in sub-Saharan Africa by looking at their recruitment, training, non-governmental support and performance. We searched the following electronic databases from January 1998 to July 2012: Medline, EMBASE (Excerpta Medica Database), The Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature), WHOLIS (World Health Organization Library Database), LILACS (Latin American and Caribbean Literature on Health Sciences) and contacted experts in the field. There were no restrictions to language or publication status. All study designs that could provide the information we sought were eligible, provided the studies were conducted in sub-Saharan Africa. Critical appraisal of all identified citations was done independently by two authors to establish the possible relevance of the articles for inclusion in the review. Of 195 hits, 17 papers met the inclusion criteria. For the management of Buruli Ulcer, CHWs are often recruited from the communities they will serve. Communities play a role in CHW selection. Larger numbers of CHWs are needed in order to improve the detection and management of cases. One of the major obstacles to the control of BU is inadequate and poorly- equipped health facilities in the affected areas. Evidence from this review suggests that CHW programmes can have large impacts on the control of BU in sub-Saharan Africa. Large-scale rigorous studies, including RCTs, are needed to assess whether the CHWs programs promote equity and access.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.