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Table 1 summarising country, type of CHW and service provided for included studies

From: How equitable are community health worker programmes and which programme features influence equity of community health worker services? A systematic review

Article and Country

Type of CHW

CHW intervention

Study design and overall quality

Equity Stratifier

(Atkinson & Haran, 2005); Brazil

Community Health Worker

Comprehensive family health programme, including CHW component (not well explained)

Cross-sectional household survey; High

Quality – Place of residence -

(Baqui et al., 2009); Bangladesh

Community Health Worker

Maternal and Neonatal health programme with CHW treatment for neonatal infections in intervention areas

Cluster randomised controlled trial; High

Access – Socio-economic status (SES) +

Utilisation – SES +

Utilisation – Education +

(Baqui et al., 2008); India

Community Health Worker

NGO facilitation of government Maternal and child health programme

Controlled before and after study; High

Empowerment – SES +

(Bell, Go, Miguel, Parks, & Bryan, 2005); Philippines

Village health worker

Malaria control and case management, community education and bednet distribution

Cross-sectional household survey (including villages with and without resident VHW); Medium

Access - Place of residence -

Access – Education –

Access – SES-

Utilisation – Place of residence –

Utilisation – Gender +

Utilisation – Education +

Utilisation – Social capital -

(Callaghan-Koru et al., 2013); Malawi

Health Surveillance Assistant

Maternal and newborn health programme, including antenatal and postnatal home visits by HSA

Before and after study, with no comparison; High

Access – SES -

Utilisation – SES ?

Empowerment – SES +

(Dalal et al., 2013) Kenya

Counsellor

Home Based Testing and Counselling Programme

Longitudinal study; Medium

Utilisation – Gender -

Utilisation – Age +

Utilisation – Place of residence -

(DasGupta, Mansuri, Nistha, & Vishwanath, 2007) Pakistan

Lady health worker

Maternal and neonatal health programme offering health and family planning services

Cross-sectional study (used data from Pakistan Integrated Household Survey); Low

Access – Education -

Utilisation – Gender +

Utilisation – Education +

(Fort, Grembowski, Heagerty, Lim, & Mercer, 2012) Guatemala

Community Nurse Auxilliary

Comprehensive family health programme

Longitudinal prospective cohort; Medium

Utilisation – Language +

Utilisation- Education ?

Utilisation – Place of residence -

Utilisation – risk +

Utilisation – SES +

Utilisation – Age

Utilisation – Religion –

Utilisation – Family type –

Utilisation – Occupation +

Quality – Age -

Quality – Language +

Quality – Education +

(Fylkesnes et al., 2013); Zambia

Counsellor

Home Based Testing and Counselling programme

Cluster randomised controlled trial; High

Utilisation – Education +

Utilisation – Gender +

Utilisation – Age +

(Hasegawa, Yasuoka, Ly, Nguon, & Jimba, 2013); Cambodia

Village malaria worker

Child health programme providing malaria case management and child health services

Cross-sectional study; High

Utilisation – Place of residence +

(- those over 25 km away)

Utilisation – SES +

Utilisation – Education +

Utilisation – Age +

Utilisation – Occupation +

(Helleringer, Kohler, Frimpong, & Mkandawire, 2009); Malawi

Counsellor

Home Based Testing and Counselling survey

Cross-sectional study; Medium

Utilisation – SES +

Utilisation – Age +

Utilisation – Gender -

Utilisation – Marital status -

Utilisation – Education -

(Hossain, Khuda, & Phillips, 2004) Bangladesh

Female Welfare Assistant

Family Planning programme

Retrospective re-analysis of longitudinal data; Low

Access – Place of residence – Quality-

(Kamiya, Yoshimura, & Islam, 2013) Bangladesh

Family Welfare Volunteer

Maternal and neonatal health programme, including community mobilisation through community support groups

Controlled, non-randomised before and after study; High

Utilisation - SES + (non CHW-)

Self Help Group

(Katabarwa et al., 2010); Uganda

Community distributors

Onchocerciasis control using kinship enhanced delivery model

Controlled cross-sectional study (kinship vs non-kinship); High

Access – Social capital -

Quality – Social capital –

Empowerment – Social capital +

(Kisia et al., 2012) Kenya

Community Health Worker

Malaria case management for children under 5 years

Before and after study, no comparison; High

Utilisation – SES +

Utilisation – Education +

Utilisation – Village size -

Utilisation – Age +

Utilisation – Household size +

(Littrell, Moukam, Libite, Youmba, & Baugh, 2013) Cameroon

Community Health Worker

Community Case Management for children under 5 years

Quasi-experimental study, with comparison group; High

Utilisation – SES +

(Matovu et al., 2005); Uganda

Counsellor

Home Based Testing and Counselling survey

Cross-sectional survey; Medium

Utilisation – Age +

Utilisation – Education +

Utilisation - Gender +

Utilisation – Marital status +

(Anthony K Mbonye, Bygbjerg, & Magnussen, 2007); Ugandaa

Mixed

Intermittent presumptive treatment malaria in pregnancy provided by a range of community based providers

Before after with comparison

Utilisation – Age

Qualitative study; High

Utilisation – Place of residence

Utilisation – Education +

(A K Mbonye, Schultz Hansen, Bygbjerg, & Magnussen, 2008) Uganda a

Mixed

Intermittent presumptive treatment malaria in pregnancy

Before after with comparison; Medium

Utilisation – Age -

Utilisation – Education +

Utilisation – Occupation +

Utilisation – Place of residence +

Utilisation – Marital status +

(Mukanga et al., 2012); Uganda

Community Health Worker

Community Case Management for pneumonia and fever

Cross-sectional survey; High

Access – Place of residence +

Utilisation – Place of residence +

Utilisation - Education - +

Utilisation – SES +

Utilisation – Occupation +

(Mulogo, Abdulaziz, Guerra, & Baine, 2011) Uganda

Counsellor

Home Based Testing and Counselling

Longitudinal study with cross sectional and investigative phases; High

Utilisation – Gender –

Utilisation – Education +

Utilisation – Place of residence +

Utilisation – Marital status –

Utilisation – SES -

(Mumtaz et al., 2013); Pakistan

Lady health worker

Maternal and child health programme providing door step family planning, antenatal and child health services

Cross-sectional study

Access – Social capital -

Qualitative study; High

Access – SES +

Quality – Social capital -

(Mutale, Michelo, Jürgensen, & Fylkesnes, 2010) Zambia

Counsellor

Home Based Testing and Counselling

Cross-sectional study; Medium

Utilisation – Place of residence +

Utilisation – Gender +

Utilisation – Education +

Access – Age +

(Naik, Tabana, Doherty, Zembe, & Jackson, 2012); South Africa

Counsellor

Home Based Testing and Counselling

Cluster randomised trial with comparison, comparing home based HTC with facility based; High

Utilisation – Gender -

Utilisation – Age +

(Nsungwa-Sabiiti et al., 2007); Uganda

Drug distributor

Malaria case management and malaria counselling

Quasi-experimental before after study with comparison group; Medium

Utilisation – SES -

Utilisation –Gender +

Utilisation – Education +

(Onwujekwe, Ojukwu, Shu, & Uzochukwu, 2007) Nigeria

Community Health Worker

Malaria case management

Before after study, no comparison; Medium

Access – SES –

Access – Number household residents –

Access – Age -

Utilisation – SES -

Quality – SES -

(Perry, King-Schultz, Aftab, & Bryant, 2007); Haiti

Animatrice

General health programme involving household peer to peer education

Cross-sectional study

Access – Place of residence –

Matrons

Exit interview; Low

Health Agents

Monitrices

(Quayyum et al., 2013); Bangladesh

Shasthaya Shebika Shasthya Kormi

Maternal and neonatal health programme providing maternal health services and education at home

Quasi-experimental, before after study with comparison area; High

Utilisation – SES + (non CHW +/-)

Newborn Health workers

(Quinley & Govindasamy, 2007); Nepal

Female Community Health Volunteer

Child health (no details provided)

Cross-sectional study (additional analysis of Demographic Health Survey data); Low

Utilisation – SES -

Utilisation – Place of residence +

(Siekmans et al., 2013); Kenya

Community Health Worker

Malaria case management for under fives

Before after study, no comparison area; High

Access – SES +

Utilisation – SES +

Empowerment – SES +

(D. O. Simba, 2005) Tanzania b

Community based distributor

Family Planning provision of contraceptives and information of sexual and reproductive health

Descriptive cross-sectional study; Medium

Utilisation – Age -

Utilisation – Occupation +

Utilisation - Gender +

Utilisation – Religion +

Utilisation – SES +

Quality – SES –

Empowerment – SES +

(D. Simba, Schuemer, Forrester, & Hiza, 2011); Tanzaniab

Community Based Agent

Family Planning provision of contraceptives and information of sexual and reproductive health

Cross-sectional descriptive study; Low

Utilisation – Place of residence +

Quality – SES +

(Wolff et al., 2005) Uganda

Counsellor

Home Based Testing and Counselling

Repeated cross-sectional study

Utilisation – Age +

Qualitative study; Medium

Utilisation – Gender +

(Wringe et al., 2008); Tanzania

Counsellor

Voluntary Counselling and Testing offered at purpose built hut following household questionnaire

Repeated cross-sectional study; High

Utilisation – Gender -

Utilisation – Education -

Utilisation – Religion -

Utilisation – Race -

Utilisation – Place of residence –

Utilisation – Age -

  1. Note + pro equity, - anti equity, ? mixed equity findings
  2. aIndicates two papers based on the same study
  3. bIndicates two papers based on the same study