What do we know about community-based health worker programs? A systematic review of existing reviews on community health workers.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To synthesize current understanding of how community-based health worker (CHW) programs can best be designed and operated in health systems.

Methods

We searched 11 databases for review articles published between 1 January 2005 and 15 June 2017. Review articles on CHWs, defined as non-professional paid or volunteer health workers based in communities, with less than 2 years of training, were included. We assessed the methodological quality of the reviews according to AMSTAR criteria, and we report our findings based on PRISMA standards.

Findings

We identified 122 reviews (75 systematic reviews, of which 34 are meta-analyses, and 47 non-systematic reviews). Eighty-three of the included reviews were from low- and middle-income countries, 29 were from high-incom

SUBMITTER: Scott K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6097220 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature