A systematic review of strategies to increase demand, uptake and quality of community-based diagnosis and case management of malaria
Region and Country: Africa, Sub Saharan
Topics: Community health workers, Malaria case management, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, Referral systems, Scaling up, Service integration, Sustainability
New MNCH Working Paper from UNICEF and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine presenting a systematic review of CCM for malaria
UNICEF, in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, has just released a new MNCH Working Paper titled “A systematic review of strategies to increase demand, uptake and quality of community-based diagnosis and case management of malaria” by Lucy Smith Paintain, Barbara Willey, Alyssa Sharkey, Julia Kim, Valentina Buj, David Schellenberg & Ngashi Ngongo.
This systematic review was conducted to assess the published and unpublished evidence on the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, equity and sustainability of strategies to increase demand and uptake and to improve the quality of community-based diagnosis and case management of malaria, towards achieving universal coverage. Specific objectives of the review were to investigate interventions to (i) improve the quality of services provided by community health workers (CHWs) responsible for malaria case management; (ii) strengthen referrals by CHWs to facility-based providers; (iii) build the capacity of health systems to support community case management (CCM); (iv) integrate malaria diagnosis and case management with other health services at the community level; and (v) increase care seeking behaviour for fever. In total, 42 studies from 16 countries in sub-Saharan Africa met the inclusion criteria for the review, addressing one or more of the stated objectives.
Key findings are presented that relate to:
- 1. Interventions to improve quality of CHW performance
- 2. Interventions to strengthen referrals from the community level
- 3. Interventions to build health system capacity to support malaria CCM
- 4. Integration of malaria CCM with other health services
- 5. Interventions to increase prompt care seeking for fever.
