ArticleHuman resources for health2021
An analysis of the services provided by community health workers within an urban district in South Africa: a key contribution towards universal access to care.
Article in Human resources for health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 40 citations in OpenAlex.
- Siyakhana: A hybrid type 2 effectiveness-implementation stepped-wedge trial to reduce stigma towards substance use and depression among community health workers in HIV/TB care in South Africa.Journal of substance use and addiction treatment · 2025Trial
- Evaluating the acceptability, feasibility, and implementation fidelity of a multipurpose mobile health (mHealth) app used for Tuberculosis (TB) contact tracing by Ward-Based Outreach Teams (WBOTs) in South Africa.PLOS global public health · 2026Article
- Implementation process and acceptability of the electronic community health information system among community health workers in Kenya.Frontiers in health services · 2026Article
- Article
- A formative evaluation of potential barriers and facilitators to inform effective implementation of a community-based hypertension care program in rural South Africa: The IMPACT-BP trial.SSM - health systems · 2025Article
- Contributions of a community health worker program in improving district health system performance in South Africa, using routine health service variables in a quasi-experimental study design.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- "You go an extra mile": a qualitative study of community health worker perspectives in a health promotion intervention in urban South Africa.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- Enablers and barriers of community health programs for improved equity and universal coverage of primary health care services: A scoping review.BMC primary care · 2024Article
- Context factors for implementation of clinical recommendations for chronic musculoskeletal pain.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2024Article
- Assessment of growth monitoring among children younger than 5 years at early childhood development centres in Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa.Health care science · 2024Article
- Community health worker training to reduce mental health and substance use stigma towards patients who have disengaged from HIV/TB care in South Africa: protocol for a stepped wedge hybrid type II pilot implementation trial.Implementation science communications · 2024Article
- A qualitative analysis of community health worker perspectives on the implementation of the preconception and pregnancy phases of the Bukhali randomised controlled trial.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- Expanding Community Health Worker decision space: learning from a Participatory Action Research training intervention in a rural South African district.Human resources for health · 2023Article
- Addressing coloniality of power to improve HIV care in South Africa and other LMIC.Frontiers in reproductive health · 2023Article
- Community health workers' quality of comprehensive care: a cross-sectional observational study across three districts in South Africa.Frontiers in public health · 2023Observational
- Lung cancer awareness training experiences of community health workers in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2022Article
- Qualitative assessment of community health workers' perspective on their motivation in community-based primary health care in rural Malawi.BMC health services research · 2022Article
- Essential health services delivery in South Africa during COVID-19: Community and healthcare worker perspectives.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Effectiveness of a large-scale, sustained and comprehensive community health worker program in improving population health: the experience of an urban health district in South Africa.Human resources for health · 2021Article
- The regulation of healthcare professions and support workers in international context.Human resources for health · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionCommunity health worker teams are potential game-changers in ensuring access to care in vulnerable communities. Who are they? What do they actually do? Can they help South Africa realize universal health coverage? As the proactive arm of the health services, community health workers teams provide household and community education, early screening, tracing and referrals for a range of health and social services. There is little local or global evidence on the household services provided by such teams, beyond specific disease-oriented activities such as for HIV and TB. This paper seeks to address this gap.
methodsDescriptive secondary data analysis of community health worker team activities in the Ekurhuleni health district, South Africa covering approximately 280,000 households with 1 million people.
resultsStudy findings illustrated that community health workers in these teams provided early screening and referrals for pregnant women and children under five. They distributed condoms and chronic medication to homes. They screened and referred for hypertension, diabetes mellitus, HIV and TB. The teams also undertook defaulter and contact tracing, the majority of which was for HIV and TB clients. Psychosocial support provided was in the form of access to social grants, access to child and gender-based violence protection services, food parcels and other services.
conclusionCommunity health workers form the core of these teams and perform several health and psychosocial services in households and poor communities in South Africa, in addition to general health education. The teams studied provided a range of activities across many health conditions (mother and child related, HIV and TB, non-communicable diseases), as well as social services. These teams provided comprehensive care in a large-scale urban setting and can improve access to care.
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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.