ArticleJournal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine2024
To What Extent Are Informal Healthcare Providers in Slums Linked to the Formal Health System in Providing Services in Sub-Sahara Africa? A 12-Year Scoping Review.
Article in Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed.
- Exploring the roles of informal healthcare providers in urban settings to improve access and quality of care for the urban poor: experience from Bangladesh, Ghana, Nepal, and Nigeria.Health policy and planning · 2026Article
- Co-creation, co-design or co-production? Reflections on the development of urban health systems implementation strategies to improve access and quality of primary healthcare services in Bangladesh, Ghana, Nepal and Nigeria.Health research policy and systems · 2026Article
- Intersectional inequalities in healthcare utilisation in informal settlements in Freetown, Sierra Leone: a multilevel analysis of individual heterogeneity and discriminatory accuracy (MAIHDA).International journal for equity in health · 2026Article
- Psychometric Validation of the Community Antimicrobial Use Scale (CAMUS) in Primary Healthcare and the Implications for Future Use.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Integrating Community Health System Activities and Participation into the Primary Healthcare System for Ensuring Effective Community Participation and Achieving Health Goals in Nigeria.Annals of global health · 2026Article
- Healthcare in the Margins: A Qualitative Study of Healthcare Access and Utilization in Bangladesh's Informal Urban Settlements.Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine · 2025Article
- Informal health care providers in Nigerian slums: perspectives on how to link them with the formal health system.Health policy and planning · 2025Article
- Willingness to Pay for Improved Quality of Services from Informal Health Providers in Urban Slums in Nigeria.PharmacoEconomics - open · 2025Article
- Health seeking by people living with non-communicable diseases in a pluralistic health system: the role of informal healthcare providers.International journal for equity in health · 2025Article
- Understanding malaria treatment patronage from informal healthcare providers in Nigerian urban settlements: insights from community members and providers.Malaria journal · 2025Article
- Assessing informal healthcare providers' knowledge of diagnosis and treatment of malaria and diarrhea: evidence from urban informal settlements in Southeast Nigeria.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Community leaders' perspectives on linking formal and informal health providers in Nigerian urban slums: a qualitative study.Discover social science and health · 2025Article
- Referral experiences of healthcare consumers: results from a cross-sectional study in urban slums in southeast Nigeria.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The contributions of informal providers to the urban health system and their linkage to the formal health system require more evidence. This paper highlights the collaborations that exist between informal providers and the formal health system and examines how these collaborations have contributed to strengthening urban health systems in sub-Sahara Africa. The study is based on a scoping review of literature that was published from 2011 to 2023 with a focus on slums in sub-Sahara Africa. Electronic search for articles was performed in Google, Google Scholar, PubMed, African Journal Online (AJOL), Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), ScienceDirect, Web of Science, Hinari, ResearchGate, and yippy.com. Data extraction was done using the WHO health systems building blocks. The review identified 26 publications that referred to collaborations between informal providers and formal health systems in healthcare delivery. The collaboration is manifested through formal health providers registering and standardizing the practice of informal health providers. They also participate in training informal providers and providing free medical commodities for them. Additionally, there were numerous instances of client referrals, either from informal to formal providers or from formal to informal providers. However, the review also indicates that these collaborations are unformalized, unsystematic, and largely undocumented. This undermines the potential contributions of informal providers to the urban health system.
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Registered trials
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