Role and outcomes of community health workers in HIV care in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review

The provision of HIV treatment and care in sub‐Saharan Africa faces multiple challenges, including weak health systems and attrition of trained health workers. One potential response to overcome these challenges has been to engage community health workers (CHWs).

• Publication year

  2013

• Venue

  Journal of the International AIDS Society

• Publication date

  2013-01-01

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Sociology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.7448/IAS.16.1.18586PMID 24029015PMCID 3772323
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Plos One

  2015cited by this paper
• Costs and cost–effectiveness of HIV community services: quantity and quality of studies published 1986–2011

  2013cited by this paper
• Impact of Community-Based HIV/AIDS Treatment on Household Incomes in Uganda

  2013cited by this paper
• The effectiveness and cost implications of task-shifting in the delivery of antiretroviral therapy to HIV-infected patients: a systematic review.

  2013cited by this paper
• Community Health Workers and Mobile Technology: A Systematic Review of the Literature

  2013cited by this paper
• Life Expectancies of South African Adults Starting Antiretroviral Treatment: Collaborative Analysis of Cohort Studies

  2013cited by this paper
• Patching a leaky pipe: the cascade of HIV care

  2012cited by this paper
• Lay Health Workers and HIV Care in Rural Lesotho: A Report from the Field

  2012influential reference
• Antiretroviral Treatment for HIV in Rural Uganda: Two-Year Treatment Outcomes of a Prospective Health Centre/Community-Based and Hospital-Based Cohort

  2012influential reference
• Community adherence support improves programme retention in children on antiretroviral treatment: a multicentre cohort study in South Africa

  2012cited by this paper
• The impact of antiretroviral treatment on the age composition of the HIV epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa

  2012cited by this paper
• Excellent Clinical Outcomes and High Retention in Care Among Adults in a Community-Based HIV Treatment Program in Rural Rwanda

  2012influential reference
• The role of health extension workers in improving utilization of maternal health services in rural areas in Ethiopia: a cross sectional study

  2012cited by this paper
• Task-Shifting to Community Health Workers: Evaluation of the Performance of a Peer-Led Model in an Antiretroviral Program in Uganda

  2012cited by this paper
• Understanding the linkages between informal and formal care for people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa

  2012cited by this paper
• Policy and programmatic implications of task shifting in Uganda: a case study

  2012cited by this paper
• Can lay community health workers be trained to use diagnostics to distinguish and treat malaria and pneumonia in children? Lessons from rural Uganda

  2011cited by this paper
• Task shifting and integration of HIV care into primary care in South Africa: The development and content of the streamlining tasks and roles to expand treatment and care for HIV (STRETCH) intervention

  2011cited by this paper
• Effectiveness of artemether-lumefantrine provided by community health workers in under-five children with uncomplicated malaria in rural Tanzania: an open label prospective study

  2011cited by this paper
• An evaluation of the impact of a community-based adherence support programme on ART outcomes in selected government HIV treatment sites in South Africa

  2011cited by this paper
• Peer Health Workers and AIDS Care in Rakai, Uganda: A Mixed Methods Operations Research Evaluation of a Cluster-Randomized Trial

  2011influential reference
• Relative costs and effectiveness of treating uncomplicated malaria in two rural districts in Zambia: implications for nationwide scale-up of home-based management

  2011cited by this paper
• Comparing antiretroviral treatment outcomes between a prospective community-based and hospital-based cohort of HIV patients in rural Uganda

  2011influential reference
• Challenges Experienced by Rural Women in India Living With AIDS and Implications for the Delivery of HIV/AIDS Care

  2011cited by this paper
• Building a Durable Response to HIV/AIDS: Implications for Health Systems

  2011cited by this paper
• Peer counselors' role in supporting patients' adherence to ART in Ethiopia and Uganda

  2011influential reference
• The experience of being a traditional midwife: living and working in relationship with women.

  2011cited by this paper
• Tackling Health Workforce Shortages During Antiretroviral Treatment Scale-up—Experiences From Ethiopia and Malawi

  2011cited by this paper
• Will universal access to antiretroviral therapy ever be possible? The health care worker challenge.

  2010cited by this paper
• Human resource aspects of antiretroviral treatment delivery models: current practices and recommendations

  2010cited by this paper
• A systematic review of task- shifting for HIV treatment and care in Africa

  2010cited by this paper
• Task-Shifting of Antiretroviral Delivery From Health Care Workers to Persons Living With HIV/AIDS: Clinical Outcomes of a Community-Based Program in Kenya

  2010influential reference
• Lay health workers in primary and community health care for maternal and child health and the management of infectious diseases.

  2010cited by this paper
• Effectiveness of a community intervention on malaria in rural Tanzania - a randomised controlled trial.

  2010cited by this paper
• Impact of Antiretroviral Therapy on Incidence of Pregnancy among HIV-Infected Women in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Cohort Study

  2010cited by this paper
• Can the deployment of community health workers for the delivery of HIV services represent an effective and sustainable response to health workforce shortages? Results of a multicountry study

  2010cited by this paper
• Lay health workers and HIV programmes: implications for health systems

  2010cited by this paper
• Effect of Peer Health Workers on AIDS Care in Rakai, Uganda: A Cluster-Randomized Trial

  2010cited by this paper
• Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: the PRISMA statement.

  2010cited by this paper
• The effects of HIV/AIDS on rural communities in East Africa: a 20‐year perspective

  2010cited by this paper
• Community health workers in health systems strengthening: a qualitative evaluation from rural Haiti

  2010cited by this paper
• An overview on the 2008 UNAIDS Report on the 2008 UNAIDS Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic.

  2010cited by this paper
• Use of task-shifting to rapidly scale-up HIV treatment services: experiences from Lusaka, Zambia

  2009cited by this paper
• Task shifting: the answer to the human resources crisis in Africa?

  2009cited by this paper
• Task shifting in HIV/AIDS: opportunities, challenges and proposed actions for sub-Saharan Africa.

  2009cited by this paper
• Community Support and Disclosure of HIV Serostatus to Family Members by Public-Sector Antiretroviral Treatment Patients in the Free State Province of South Africa

  2009influential reference
• Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: the PRISMA Statement

  2009cited by this paper
• Community health workers for ART in sub-Saharan Africa: learning from experience – capitalizing on new opportunities

  2009cited by this paper
• Task-shifting HIV counselling and testing services in Zambia: the role of lay counsellors

  2009influential reference
• Experience with a "social model" of capacity building: the Peoples-uni

  2009cited by this paper
• An integrated approach of community health worker support for HIV/AIDS and TB care in Angónia district, Mozambique

  2009influential reference
• Rates of virological failure in patients treated in a home-based versus a facility-based HIV-care model in Jinja, southeast Uganda: a cluster-randomised equivalence trial

  2009influential reference
• The persistence and challenges of homebirths: perspectives of traditional birth attendants in urban Kenya.

  2008cited by this paper
• Adherence Support Workers: A Way to Address Human Resource Constraints in Antiretroviral Treatment Programs in the Public Health Setting in Zambia

  2008influential reference
• Community health workers and the response to HIV/AIDS in South Africa: tensions and prospects.

  2008influential reference
• Expansion of the health workforce and the HIV epidemic.

  2008cited by this paper
• Human resources requirements for highly active antiretroviral therapy scale-up in Malawi

  2007cited by this paper
• Community support is associated with better antiretroviral treatment outcomes in a resource-limited rural district in Malawi.

  2007influential reference
• Home-Based Antiretroviral Care Is Associated With Positive Social Outcomes in a Prospective Cohort in Uganda

  2007cited by this paper
• Feasibility of a community health worker strategy for providing near and appropriate treatment of malaria in southeast Nigeria: an analysis of activities, costs and outcomes.

  2007cited by this paper
• Voices from the field: perspectives from community health workers on health care delivery in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

  2007cited by this paper
• Community health workers as a cornerstone for integrating HIV and primary healthcare

  2007cited by this paper
• Health Systems and Access to Antiretroviral Drugs for HIV in Southern Africa: Service Delivery and Human Resources Challenges

  2006cited by this paper
• How Can We Synthesize Qualitative and Quantitative Evidence for Healthcare Policy-Makers and Managers?

  2006cited by this paper
• How can the community contribute in the fight against HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis? An example from a rural district in Malawi.

  2006influential reference
• Systematically reviewing qualitative and quantitative evidence to inform management and policy-making in the health field

  2005cited by this paper
• Community health workers and professional nurses: defining the roles and understanding the relationships.

  2005cited by this paper
• Scaling-up HIV treatment programmes in resource-limited settings: the rural Haiti experience

  2004cited by this paper
• Direct observation of treatment for tuberculosis: a randomized controlled trial of community health workers versus family members

  2004cited by this paper
• Community health workers and home-based care programs for HIV clients.

  2004influential reference
• The meaning and challenge of voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) for counsellors — report of the Kenya Association of Professional Counsellors (KAPC) conference for sub-Saharan Africa

  2004cited by this paper
• The problem of appraising qualitative research

  2004cited by this paper
• An evaluation of a community‐based approach to safe motherhood in northwestern Tanzania

  2003cited by this paper
• The practice of community caregivers in a home-based HIV/AIDS project in South Africa.

  2002influential reference
• Survey Methods in Community Medicine

  2000cited by this paper
• Comparison of cost effectiveness of directly observed treatment (DOT) and conventionally delivered treatment for tuberculosis: experience from rural South Africa

  1997cited by this paper
• Assessing the quality of reports of randomized clinical trials: is blinding necessary?

  1996cited by this paper
• Interpreting qualitative data: Methods for analysing talk, text and interaction

  1996cited by this paper
• Interpreting Qualitative Data

  1994cited by this paper
• Community health workers in national programmes : just another pair of hands?

  1990cited by this paper
• Strengthening the performance of community health workers in primary health care. Report of a WHO Study Group.

  1989cited by this paper

• Community health worker and family support for addiction treatment services

  2026cites this paper
• Strategies to Overcome Implementation Challenges of Multiple Family Group Therapy for Adolescents Living With HIV in Ghana: Perspectives of Multiple Stakeholders

  2026cites this paper
• Adapting an intervention to improve hypertension care for adults with HIV in Tanzania: Co-design of the Community Health Worker Optimization of Antihypertensive Care in HIV (COACH) intervention

  2025cites this paper
• Exploring parental knowledge, care-seeking, and support strategies for neonatal illness: an integrative review of the African Great Lakes region

  2025cites this paper
• Implementation of Single-Pill Combination Medication for Hypertension Treatment by Nonphysician Health Care Workers at Primary Healthcare Facilities in Nigeria: An Explanatory Mixed Methods Study

  2025cites this paper
• Contributions of a community health worker program in improving district health system performance in South Africa, using routine health service variables in a quasi-experimental study design

  2025cites this paper
• ‘Empowerment’ as a proximal implementation outcome for task shifting with informal cadres: findings from a qualitative study with traditional healers in rural Uganda

  2025cites this paper
• Systemic inequities, dignity, and trust in the context of HIV care: a qualitative analysis

  2025cites this paper
• Community Perspectives on Optimizing Community Health Volunteer Roles for HIV Prevention Services in Kenya and Uganda

  2025cites this paper
• Interactive Internet-Based Motivational Interviewing Training for HIV Counseling Support Staff to Improve Health Communication in HIV Care Interactions: Protocol for Training Development and a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

  2025cites this paper
• Exploring barriers to PMTCT: perceptions of HIV-positive pregnant women in western Kenya

  2025cites this paper
• Healthcare providers’ experiences and recommendations for antiretroviral therapy adherence in Ghana: A facility-based phenomenological study

  2025cites this paper
• Strengthening implementation science research to improve adolescent and young adult HIV-prevention and care in Sub-Saharan Africa: PATC3H-IN

  2025cites this paper
• Five-Year Outcomes of a CHW-Driven Maternal-Infant Health Model through a County Health Department in a Medically Underserved Region

  2025cites this paper
• Interprofessional collaboration between pharmacists and community health workers: a scoping review

  2025cites this paper
• Hope for the Future: Key Informants' Perspectives on HIV Prevention in Dominican Republic Batey Communities: A Qualitative Description Study.

  2025cites this paper
• Feasibility and Acceptability of Diabetes and Hypertension Screening and Diagnosis by Community Health Workers in Rural Lesotho: A Mixed-Methods Pilot Study

  2025cites this paper
• Facilitators and barriers to community-based HIV testing in Guinea: a CFIR-based implementation analysis

  2025cites this paper
• Mapping experiences of workplace stigma and discrimination within the lived-living experience of illicit drug use and bloodborne virus peer workforce: a scoping review

  2025cites this paper
• Breaking barriers, changing paradigms: Africa's radical agenda for HIV sustainability

  2025cites this paper
• Community and Individual Education Influences on Sexual and Reproductive Health Knowledge in Uganda: A Human Capital and Social Learning Perspective

  2025cites this paper
• The Lived Experiences of Ugandan Community Health Workers Engaged in Prevention of Vertical Transmission of HIV and a Capacity-Building Intervention

  2025cites this paper
• Advancing functional and systemic integration of HIV prevention into public health systems.

  2025cites this paper
• Hospitalized with HIV in Zambia: individual and system factors driving the high burden of admissions and post-discharge mortality in the era of HIV epidemic control

  2025cites this paper
• A self-disclosure model for adolescents with perinatally acquired HIV in Eswatini

  2025cites this paper
• Community health workers' knowledge of Ubuntu informed care in tuberculosis, HIV, and AIDS in Gauteng province.

  2025cites this paper
• A scoping review exploring cancer survivorship in Africa: 2011 to 2024.

  2025cites this paper
• Efforts made, challenges faced, and recommendations provided by stakeholders involved in mpox prevention and control in China: a qualitative study.

  2024cites this paper
• How Community-Based Organizations Responded to the Covid-19 Crisis to Maintain HIV Services Among Vulnerable Populations in Burundi, Mauritania, and Lebanon: Qualitative Results From the Multicountry EPIC Program

  2024cites this paper
• Halting and re-issuing of the Zambia community health strategy (2017–2021): a retrospective analysis of the policy process and implications for community health systems

  2024cites this paper
• Effectiveness of team-based care interventions in improving blood pressure outcomes among adults with hypertension in Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis

  2024cites this paper
• Community members’ perceptions of community health workers in Melusi, Tshwane, South Africa

  2024influential citation
• IAPAC-Lancet HIV Commission on the future of urban HIV responses.

  2024cites this paper
• Barriers to longitudinal follow-up for hepatitis B treatment in rural Sierra Leone: A mixed methods study of retention in care

  2024cites this paper
• Public health surveillance through community health workers: a scoping review of evidence from 25 low-income and middle-income countries

  2024cites this paper
• "If it is easy to understand then it will have value": Examining Perceptions of Explainable AI with Community Health Workers in Rural India

  2024cites this paper
• Evaluation of the implementation of a community health worker-led COVID-19 contact tracing intervention in Chiapas, Mexico, from March 2020 to December 2021

  2024cites this paper
• Process evaluation of the ‘Lafiyan Yara’ project on enhancing access to HIV testing services using existing community structures in Nigeria

  2024cites this paper
• Post-intervention perceptions on the antiretroviral therapy community group model in Trans Nzoia County, Kenya

  2024cites this paper
• Implementation strategies to improve HIV care cascade outcomes in low‐ and middle‐income countries: a systematic review from 2014 to 2021

  2024cites this paper
• Community interventions for pandemic preparedness: A scoping review of pandemic preparedness lessons from HIV, COVID-19, and other public health emergencies of international concern

  2024influential citation
• Roles and Current Challenges of Peer Educators in delivering HIV/AIDS-related services: a case study in VietNam

  2024cites this paper
• Feasibility, acceptability and preliminary effect of a community-led HIV self-testing model among adolescent girls and young women in Rural Northern Uganda: a quasi-experimental study protocol

  2024cites this paper
• Stakeholder perspectives to inform the implementation of a community health worker-delivered home management of hypertension intervention in Zimbabwe

  2024cites this paper
• A Political–Economic Model of Community and Societal Health Resources: A 92‐Country Global Analysis

  2024cites this paper
• Reimplementing English as a Mandatory Subject in Elementary Schools: Teachers’ Beliefs under the Merdeka Curriculum

  2024cites this paper
• Treatment failure among Sub-Sahara African children living with HIV: a systematic review and meta-analysis

  2024cites this paper
• The role of indigenous healers in treating surgical conditions in the rural Eastern Cape of South Africa.

  2024cites this paper
• “They need people to actually show up in their lives:” deploying community health workers to improve mental health and substance use outcomes among PLWH

  2023cites this paper
• Lived Experiences of PLWHIV Accessing Nutrition Education and Counselling: Exploring the Benefits, Barriers and Strategies

  2023cites this paper
• A community‐based dynamic choice model for HIV prevention improves PrEP and PEP coverage in rural Uganda and Kenya: a cluster randomized trial

  2023cites this paper
• Motivational interviewing experiences from a community health worker-led HIV prevention and care intervention in rural Uganda: a qualitative study

  2023cites this paper
• De-medicalized and decentralized HIV testing: a strategy to test hard-to-reach men who have sex with men in Cameroon

  2023cites this paper
• Effectiveness of peer assisted learning in improving HIV knowledge, attitude, and perception among community health workers

  2023cites this paper
• Increasing antiretroviral therapy adherence and retention in care among adults living with HIV in Philadelphia: a study protocol for a stepped-wedge cluster-randomised type 2 hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial of managed problem-solving plus (MAPS+) delivered by community health workers

  2023cites this paper
• Acceptability and feasibility of home-based hypertension and physical activity screening by community health workers in an under-resourced community in South Africa

  2023cites this paper
• Motivation and job satisfaction of community health workers in Ethiopia: a mixed-methods approach

  2023cites this paper
• Evidence and gap map report: Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) interventions for strengthening HIV prevention and research among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs)

  2023cites this paper
• Resilience outcomes and associated factors among workers in community-based HIV care centres during the Covid-19 pandemic: A multi-country analysis from the EPIC program

  2023cites this paper
• Incidence of HIV disclosure among HIV affected heterosexual partners using a community health worker led mechanism in rural Uganda; a quasi-experimental study

  2023cites this paper
• Workload and emerging challenges of community health workers in low- and middle-income countries: A mixed-methods systematic review

  2023cites this paper
• Patient trust and positive attitudes maximize non-communicable diseases management in rural Tanzania.

  2023cites this paper
• Combating malaria in Kenya through collaborative population health education: a systematic review and pilot case study

  2023cites this paper
• “If You Do Not Take the Medicine and Complete the Dose…It Could Cause You More Trouble”: Bringing Awareness, Local Knowledge and Experience into Antimicrobial Stewardship in Tanzania

  2023cites this paper
• Achieving HIV Epidemic Control and Improving Maternal Healthcare Services with Community-Based HIV Service Delivery in Zambia: Mixed-Methods Assessment of the SMACHT Project

  2023cites this paper
• Experiences and challenges of using community health worker-led mechanism in supporting HIV disclosure among adults living with HIV in heterosexual relationships in the rural Uganda

  2023cites this paper
• Mobilizing Religious Communities to Combat the Spread of HIV AIDS in Rural Uganda: Implications for Social Work and Sociological Theory

  2023cites this paper
• Impact of Community Support Workers in Rural Ethiopia on Emotional and Psychosocial Health of Persons Living with HIV: Results of a Three-Year Randomized Community Trial

  2023cites this paper
• Confirming—and testing—bonds of trust: A mixed methods study exploring community health workers’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh, Haiti and Kenya

  2022cites this paper
• Health system response to preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV policy changes in Zambia: a health system dynamics analysis of primary health care facilities

  2022cites this paper
• Stigma and Discrimination of HIV/AIDs Recipients of Care in Western Uganda: Experiences and Roles of Expert Clients

  2022cites this paper
• Take time to listen: community health worker perceptions on self-management trainer role

  2022cites this paper
• Networking community health workers for service integration: role of social media

  2022cites this paper
• Effect of a ward-based outreach team and adherence game on retention and viral load suppression

  2022cites this paper
• Utilisation of village health workers’ services for tuberculosis screening in Lesotho

  2022cites this paper
• Impact of community health worker intervention on PrEP knowledge and use in Rakai, Uganda: A mixed methods, implementation science evaluation

  2022cites this paper
• Community Health Workers Improve HIV Disclosure Among HIV-Affected Sexual Partners in Rural Uganda: A Quasi-Experimental Study

  2022influential citation
• Telemedicine for Surgical Site Infection Diagnosis in Rural Rwanda: Concordance and Accuracy of Image Reviews

  2022cites this paper
• A story-telling cloth approach to motivating cervical cancer screening in Mali

  2022cites this paper
• Improving access to maternal health services among rural hard-to-reach fishing communities in Uganda, the role of community health workers

  2022cites this paper
• “If it weren’t for my traditional healer, I would be dead”: Engaging traditional healers to support people living with HIV in rural Mozambique

  2022cites this paper
• Acceptability and impact of group interpersonal therapy (IPT-G) on Kenyan adolescent mothers living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV): a qualitative analysis

  2022cites this paper
• Challenges of stakeholders' engagement for developing pragmatic, primary health care interventions for chronic respiratory diseases in low resource settings in India

  2022cites this paper
• Roles, Barriers, and Recommendations for Community Health Workers Providing Community-Based HIV Care in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Review

  2022cites this paper
• MALE ENGAGEMENT IN HIV TESTING, TREATMENT AND PREVENTION IN EASTERN AND SOUTHERN AFRICA

  2022cites this paper
• Community-based referral for tuberculosis preventive therapy is effective for treatment completion

  2022cites this paper
• The association between health workforce availability and HIV-program outcomes in Côte d’Ivoire

  2022cites this paper
• Peer-Led Community-Based Support Services and HIV Treatment Outcomes Among People Living With HIV in Wuxi, China: Propensity Score–Matched Analysis of Surveillance Data From 2006 to 2021

  2022cites this paper
• Community Health Workers Increase the Rate of HIV Disclosure Among HIV Affected Heterosexual Partners in Rural Uganda; A Cluster Non-Randomized Controlled Trial

  2022cites this paper
• Community healthcare workers’ experiences with the care of clients on antiretroviral therapy in the community

  2022cites this paper
• A three-year randomized community trial of community support workers in rural Ethiopia to promote retention in HIV care

  2022cites this paper
• Systematic review: Development of a person‐centered care framework within the context of HIV treatment settings in sub‐Saharan Africa

  2022cites this paper
• Stakeholder Perspectives on MAPS

  2022cites this paper
• Community-based HIV treatment service delivery model for Community-based HIV treatment service delivery model for female sex workers in Tanzania: Evaluation findings female sex workers in Tanzania: Evaluation findings

  2022cites this paper
• Risk factors for late linkage to care and delayed antiretroviral therapy initiation amongst HIV infected adults in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review and meta-analyses.

  2022cites this paper
• Community-based health workers implementing universal access to HIV testing and treatment: lessons from South Africa and Zambia—HPTN 071 (PopART) the HPTN 071 (PopART) study

  2021cites this paper
• An examination of the structural linkages between households and community health services in realization of accelerated primary healthcare delivery in Kisumu County, Kenya: a systematic review

  2021cites this paper
• Towards Sustainable Community-Based Systems for Infectious Disease and Disaster Response; Lessons from Local Initiatives in Four African Countries

  2021cites this paper
• Bringing the social into vaccination research: Community-led ethnography and trust-building in immunization programs in Sierra Leone

  2021cites this paper
• Patient perspectives on the helpfulness of a community health worker program for HIV care engagement in Tanzania

  2021cites this paper