兰州大学循证社会科学交叉创新实验室 Innovation Laboratory of Evidence-based Social Sciences,Lanzhou University

Impact of community health workers on access to care for rural populations in the United States: A systematic review

2022-6

Community Health Worker (CHW) interventions have shown potential to reduce inequities for underserved populations. However, there is a lack of support for CHW integration in the delivery of health care. This may be of particular importance in rural areas in the Unites States where access to care remains problematic. This review aims to describe CHW interventions and their outcomes in rural populations in the US. Peer reviewed literature was searched in PubMed and PsycINFO for articles published in English from 2015 to February 2021. Title and abstract screening was performed followed by full text screening. Quality of the included studies was assessed using the Downs and Black score. A total of 26 studies met inclusion criteria. The largest proportion were pre-post program evaluation or cohort studies (46.2%). Many described CHW training (69%). Almost a third (30%) indicated the CHW was integrated within the health care team. Interventions aimed to provide health education (46%), links to community resources (27%), or both (27%). Chronic conditions were the concern for most interventions (38.5%) followed by women's health (34.6%). Nearly all studies reported positive improvement in measured outcomes. In addition, studies examining cost reported positive return on investment. This review offers a broad overview of CHW interventions in rural settings in the United States. It provides evidence that CHW can improve access to care in rural settings and may represent a cost-effective investment for the healthcare system.

研究类型
系统评价
人群
混合人群
主题
["医疗服务人员","卫生服务","基层卫生"]
作者
Yezhe Lin; Hui Xie; Zimo Huang; Quan Zhang; Amanda Wilson; Jiaojiao Hou; Xudong Zhao; Yuanyuan Wang; Bailin Pan; Ye Liu; Meng Han; Runsen Chen
国家
United States
关键词
Access to Health Care; Community Health Worker; Rural Health; Underserved Populations
来源期刊
Lancet Public Health .
发布日期
2022-6
全文链接
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34817755/
相关网址
https://www.healthsystemsevidence.org/articles/62fe6fccef088708d8e130af-impact-of-community-health-workers-on-access-to-care-for-rural-populations-in-the-united-states-a-systematic-review?source=saved_email
DOI
10.1007/s10900-021-01052-6
学科领域
Not available