Abstract:

The objective of the study was to investigate the association between community health workers (CHWs) socio-demographic characteristics with compliance to quality delivery of integrated community case management (iCCM) of malaria, diarrhea and simple respiratory infection. This was an implementation research study conducted in two local government areas of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria with a total of 152 CHWs. The study used an observational data collected by the ministry of health and implementing agency in 2010. The observational data was re-analyzed using SPSS version 17 to examine the association between the dependent variable, quality improvement performance score and independent variable - socio-demographic characteristics of CHWs. 21% of the CHWs were male while 79% were female CHWs. The CHWs overall mean age was 36.8(±8.7) years. The CHWs were assigned to the following age groups: <36 years (53%), and >36 years (47%).  12.0% of the CHWs had primary education; 74.0% attained secondary school while 14.0% of the CHWs attained post-secondary school. 63.0% of the CHWs were unskilled while 37.0% of the CHWs were skilled. Chi-square test result revealed that 81.5% (n=124) of the 152 CHWs studied were compliant to quality improvement performance. Logistic regression analysis showed that socio-demographic characteristic associated with quality improvement performance was sex (OR 2.717, 95% CI: 1.064-6.937, p=0.037). To introduce and sustain the impact on quality performance among CHWs requires training, supportive supervision and strong coordination.

Keyword: So-demographic characteristics, Community health workers, integrated community case management of malaria, pneumonia and diarrhea; quality improvement performance standards.

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