Authors: Mary Jane Rotheram-Borus, Karl W le Roux, Peter Norwood, Linnea Stansert Katzen, Andre Snyman, Ingrid le Roux, Elaine Dippenaar, Mark Tomlinson
This study sought to examine if child and maternal outcomes are better when existing government CHWs, who are perinatal home visitors, receive ongoing enhanced supervision and monitoring compared to standard care. A cluster randomized controlled effectiveness trial was conducted to compare outcomes over two years between different supervision and monitoring models.The observed benefits of the enhanced CHW supervision and monitoring model were not statistically significant and did not show higher efficacy over the standard of care. While the observed outcomes were not statistically significant, benefits were observed in four outcomes: increased breastfeeding for six months, reduced malnutrition, increased ARV adherence, and improved developmental milestones. These findings suggest that the tested CHW supervision and monitoring approach may have some, albeit limited, impacts on maternal and child outcomes, suggesting a need for investigation of alternative approaches to improve the current standard of care.
Link: The effect of supervision on community health workers' effectiveness with households in rural South Africa: A cluster randomized controlled trial
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Resource Topic: CHW, Supervision
Resource Type: Research
Year: 2023
Region: Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)
Country: South Africa
Publisher May Restrict Access: No