Department of Infectious Diseases, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, University of Melbourne, 792 Elizabeth St, Melbourne, VIC, 3000, Australia.
Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Parkville, VIC, Australia.
BMC Health Serv Res. 2024 Jun 7;24(1):711. doi: 10.1186/s12913-024-11165-y.
Community health workers (CHWs) had important roles mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in vulnerable communities. We described how CHWs supported the dissemination of COVID-19 information and services during the early pandemic response.
Online article searches were conducted across five scientific databases, with review article reference lists hand searched to identify grey/unpublished literature. Articles were included if they reported on a program that engaged CHWs and aimed to prevent/control COVID-19.
Nineteen relevant programs were identified from 18 included articles. CHWs were widely engaged in the pandemic response, especially in low- and middle-income countries and in vulnerable communities. CHWs' ability to effectively disseminate COVID-19 information/services was enabled by community trust and understanding community needs. CHWs were often underfunded and required to work in difficult conditions. Pre-existing services incorporating CHWs rapidly adapted to the new challenges brought by the pandemic.
We recommend establishing programs that employ CHWs to disseminate health information and services in communities at-risk of misinformation and poor health outcomes during non-pandemic times. CHWs are well-placed to deliver interventions should an infectious disease outbreak arise. Having pre-existing trusted relationships between CHWs and community members may help protect vulnerable groups, including when outbreaks occur.
社区卫生工作者（CHWs）在脆弱社区减轻 COVID-19 大流行影响方面发挥了重要作用。我们描述了 CHWs 在早期大流行应对期间如何支持传播 COVID-19 信息和服务。
在五个科学数据库中进行了在线文章搜索，并对综述文章的参考文献列表进行了手工搜索，以确定灰色/未发表的文献。如果文章报告了一项参与 CHWs 并旨在预防/控制 COVID-19 的计划，则将其纳入。
从 18 篇纳入的文章中确定了 19 个相关计划。CHWs 广泛参与大流行应对工作，特别是在低收入和中等收入国家以及脆弱社区。社区信任和了解社区需求使 CHWs 能够有效地传播 COVID-19 信息/服务。CHWs 往往资金不足，需要在困难的条件下工作。纳入 CHWs 的现有服务迅速适应了大流行带来的新挑战。
我们建议在社区中建立雇用 CHWs 来传播健康信息和服务的计划，这些社区在非大流行时期容易受到错误信息和不良健康结果的影响。CHWs 在传染病爆发时能够很好地实施干预措施。CHWs 与社区成员之间预先存在的信任关系可能有助于保护弱势群体，包括在爆发发生时。
