Over half of residents of Loreto, Peru reside in remote communities with limited access to health services. Daniel Ebbs and colleagues evaluated health resource utilization in Loreto before and after the implementation of a CHW training program created with the support of the local community. Health resource utilization significantly improved following implementation, leading … [Read more...] about Expanding Medical Education for Local Health Promoters Among Remote Communities of the Peruvian Amazon: An Exploratory Study of an Innovative Program Model
Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)
The effectiveness of peer and community health worker-led self-management support programs for improving diabetes health-related outcomes in adults in low- and-middle-income countries: a systematic review
Low- and middle-income countries house 80% of all cases of diabetes worldwide. Community-based peer and community health worker-led diabetes self-management programs offer a low-resource strategy to support diabetes management. Mahmoud Werfalli and colleagues surveyed research on these programs to understand how they have been implemented and what their impacts are on health. … [Read more...] about The effectiveness of peer and community health worker-led self-management support programs for improving diabetes health-related outcomes in adults in low- and-middle-income countries: a systematic review
Learning from Community Health Worker programs, big and small
Interest and investment in Community Health Workers varies depending on the state of the research on the effectiveness of each program. In this commentary, Stephen Hodgins describes how sustained interest can be achieved by increasing cross-communication between small demonstration projects and large programs. … [Read more...] about Learning from Community Health Worker programs, big and small
Community engagement interventions for communicable disease control in low- and lower- middle-income countries: evidence from a review of systematic reviews
A diverse array of approaches exist to encourage community engagement to achieve communicable disease control. K. Questa and colleagues collected 13 systematic reviews of research examining community engagement-related communicable disease control to understand which approaches to engagement exist and what is known about their effectiveness. Approaches included community … [Read more...] about Community engagement interventions for communicable disease control in low- and lower- middle-income countries: evidence from a review of systematic reviews
Community gatekeepers and the conundrum of confidentiality and coercion
This commentary responds to an article by Sunu Thomas (2020) describing concerns about the role of confidentiality when a research participant discloses sensitive personal information while a CHW is present. The author describes concerns about whether CHWs should bridge the gap between communities and researchers and whether their presence during data collection represents a … [Read more...] about Community gatekeepers and the conundrum of confidentiality and coercion