Authors: Thomas A Gaziano, Melanie Bertram, Stephen M Tollman and Karen J Hofman
Of the non-communicable diseases (NCDs), hypertension is a major burden in general and in particular in South Africa with trends showing a growth of 20% for both men and women over the past decade. Of further significance is that adherence to hypertension medication varies significantly from under 10% in the lowest socio-economic status (SES) quintile compared to 80% in the highest quintile.
However, effective management of patients who are at high risk for NCDs in low-resource settings is challenging due to limited human and financial resources. In response, the South African Department of Health is restructuring its primary health care (PHC) system to ensure the service capacity necessary to manage the ongoing infectious disease challenges in addition to the rising demands from increasing hypertension and other NCDs with limited numbers of doctors and nurses. The restructuring of the PHC will include the training of over 50,000 Community Health Workers (CHWs.)
Where CHWs have been used to manage NCDs, this has largely been for improving adherence and lifestyle choices, or screening for cancer. However, to date, there is no evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of CHWs in aiding adherence to medications for cardiovascular disease (CVD).
The authors conducted this analysis to determine whether training community health workers (CHWs) about hypertension in order to improve adherence to medications is a cost-effective intervention among community members in South Africa.
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Resource Topic: Chronic conditions, Community Health Workers/Volunteers, Human Resources Management/Workforce Development, NON Communicable Diseases/NCD, Training
Resource Type: Research
Year: 2014
Region: Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)
Country: South Africa
Publisher May Restrict Access: No