ArticleTropical medicine and health2025
Effect of trust in village health workers on the use of facility-based follow-up postnatal care services in two districts in the Lao People's Democratic Republic.
Article in Tropical medicine and health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 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
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Implementation pathways of a health services delivery redesign model to improve maternal and newborn outcomes in Kenya.BMJ global health · 2026Article
- Working in pairs: male-female village health volunteers supporting maternal health and community engagement in remote and ethnic communities of Lao PDR-a qualitative study.Tropical medicine and health · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDespite high coverage of antenatal care services (89.8%) and facility-based deliveries (79.8%), delayed initiation or lack of follow-up postnatal care (PNC) visits remains a challenge in the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR). Follow-up PNC encourages healthy lifestyles and monitoring mothers' and newborns' health to decrease postpartum complications and hospital readmissions. While village health volunteers and workers (VHVs/VHWs) are essential for health promotion in Lao PDR, the extent to which mothers' trust in VHVs/VHWs helps promote better service utilization has not been studied.
objectivesWe investigated the trust levels in VHVs/VHWs among ethnic minority mothers and the influence on the use of facility-based follow-up PNC.
methodsWe utilized cross-sectional data from July and August 2024, collected as a baseline survey for a quasi-experimental study conducted in 35 villages across the Sepone and Vilabuly districts. We compared the respondents' PNC usage and characteristics using chi-square tests and Fisher's exact tests. Standard binary logistic regression analyses were conducted to estimate the effects of various factors on the utilization of facility-based follow-up PNC. Trust in VHVs/VHWs was a construct variable based on their provision of emotional support, relevant information, adequate discussion time, effective care, and the likelihood of future pregnancy-related care.
resultsThe study enrolled 241 mothers (mean age 24 years, SD 5.7), including 110 from Sepone and 131 from Vilabuly. Overall, the follow-up PNC coverage rate was 19.0%, and there was no significant difference between Sepone and Vilabuly, despite variations in access to healthcare and engagement with VHVs/VHWs. High trust in VHVs/VHWs was linked to 12.25 times higher odds of utilizing follow-up PNC than low trust (95% CI 2.2-67.8). In addition, having an older child (9-12 months) and immediate PNC utilization were beneficial for subsequent PNC use. Unexpectedly, contact with VHVs/VHWs during prenatal and/or postnatal periods decreased the odds of utilizing follow-up PNC, with distance to health facilities and adherence to traditional gender norms also having a similar negative effect.
conclusionsFacility-based follow-up postnatal care was critically low among respondents; however, increasing trust in VHVs/VHWs may foster improvements. Along with increasing contact frequency, offering quality support to mothers through VHVs/VHWs while emphasizing the complementary nature of community-based and facility-based care could be beneficial. Effective interventions may also include enhancing immediate PNC and tackling physical accessibility challenges, as well as restrictive gender norms through male involvement.
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.