This study will help us better understand how Community Health Workers (CHWs) programs can be strengthened to screen, identify, refer and continue care for patients with hypertension/diabetes. We train CHWs to screen, refer and continue the care of participants found with hypertension and/or diabetes at the community level.
Many Ugandans suffer from high blood pressure and diabetes. However, only a small proportion of the people affected knows their disease status. In addition, diagnosis for these diseases only occurs in clinical settings which is often hard to access, especially in rural areas. Many low and middle income countries (LMICs) including Uganda have deployed CHWs to expand health services beyond clinical settings. Results indicate that CHWs improve health care in communities. Hereby, CHWs act as a link between the formal health sector and their communities.
After the qualitative data is analyzed, we will perform a formal research training workshop for over 20 CHWs. Afterwards, CHWs will reach out to community members to collect information on disease prevalence of rural participants.