ArticleHuman resources for health2018
Community boundary spanners as an addition to the health workforce to reach marginalised people: a scoping review of the literature.
Article in Human resources for health, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed.
- Monetary incentives and peer referral in promoting secondary distribution of HIV self-testing among men who have sex with men in China: A randomized controlled trial.PLoS medicine · 2022Trial
- Diplomatic roles of regional coordinators for WHO Member States.Bulletin of the World Health Organization · 2026Article
- Dietitians as Food Systems Changemakers: The Path to Developing a Resilient, Equitable, Healthy and Connected Food System in the Illawarra Shoalhaven Region of Australia.Journal of human nutrition and dietetics : the official journal of the British Dietetic Association · 2026Article
- Community-Based Preventive Health Interventions and Their Impact on Population Health Outcomes: A Narrative Review.Cureus · 2026Review
- Tailoring an auricular point acupressure self-management program for chronic pain: lessons learned from rural partners.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Collaborating Across Organizational Boundaries to Develop, Evaluate, and Implement eHealth: Scoping Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- "I'd just love to hear what the community has to say": Exploring the potential of community-driven vaccine messaging amongst ethnic minority communities.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2024Article
- Being both a grandmother and a health worker: experiences of community-based health workers in addressing adolescents' sexual and reproductive health needs in rural Zambia.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Exploring cross-boundary collaboration for youth mental health in Sweden - a qualitative study using the integrative framework for collaborative governance.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- A virtuous cycle of co-production: Reflections from a community priority-setting exercise.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2023Article
- Telephone outreach by volunteer navigators: a theory-based evaluation of an intervention to improve access to appropriate primary care.BMC primary care · 2023Article
- Managers as peer workers' allies: A qualitative study of managers' perceptions and actions to involve peer workers in Norwegian mental health and substance use services.International journal of mental health systems · 2023Article
- Peer Workers in Co-production and Co-creation in Mental Health and Substance Use Services: A Scoping Review.Administration and policy in mental health · 2023Article
- Does inter-border conflict influence the views of task sharing among community health volunteers in Nigeria? A qualitative study.Conflict and health · 2022Article
- Community health workers at the dawn of a new era: 3. Programme governance.Health research policy and systems · 2021Review
- Exploring access in a volunteer free-service dental clinic.Canadian journal of dental hygiene : CJDH = Journal canadien de l'hygiene dentaire : JCHD · 2021Article
- Collaboration with community connectors to improve primary care access for hardly reached people: a case comparison of rural Ireland and Australia.BMC health services research · 2020Article
- Don't Ignore the Tipping Point: A Framework to Fuel Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Efforts in Health-care Sciences.Education in the health professionsArticle
- A Social Network Lens to Community Health Worker Influence and Impact.Journal of primary care & community healthArticle
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.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundHealth services in high-income countries increasingly recognise the challenge of effectively serving and engaging with marginalised people. Effective engagement with marginalised people is essential to reduce health disparities these populations face. One solution is by tapping into the phenomenon of boundary-spanning people in the community-those who facilitate the flow of ideas, information, activities and relationships across organisation and socio-cultural boundaries.
methodsA scoping review methodology was applied to peer-reviewed articles to answer the question: "How do health services identify, recruit and use boundary spanners and what are the outcomes?" The review was conducted in seven databases with search terms based on community-based boundary spanning, marginalised people and health services.
findingsWe identified 422 articles with the screening process resulting in a final set of 30 articles. We identified five types of community-based boundary spanning: navigators, community health workers, lay workers, peer supporters and community entities. These range from strong alignment to the organisation through to those embedded in the community. We found success in four domains for the organisation, the boundary spanner, the marginalised individuals and the broader community. Quantifiable outcomes related to cost-savings, improved disease management and high levels of clinical care. Outcomes for marginalised individuals related to improved health knowledge and behaviours, improved health, social benefits, reduced barriers to accessing services and increased participation in services. We identified potential organisational barriers to using boundary spanners based on organisational culture and staff beliefs.
conclusionsCommunity boundary spanners are a valuable adjunct to the health workforce. They enable access to hard to reach populations with beneficial health outcomes. Maintaining the balance of organisational and community alignment is key to ongoing success and diffusion of this approach.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.