African Medical & Bio-Engineering Research | 02 April 2007
Assessment of Community Health Worker Training Programmes for Malaria Prevention and Treatment Amongst Rural Women Farmers in Zambia
L, u, s, a, k, a, M, u, l, e, n, g, a, ,, C, h, o, m, a, C, h, i, k, w, a, n, d, a
Abstract
Malaria remains a significant public health issue in rural areas of Zambia, particularly among women farmers who face unique challenges in accessing malaria prevention and treatment services. A mixed-methods approach was employed, including pre- and post-training assessments, focus group discussions, and quantitative data collection from a stratified sample of women farmers. The intervention programme covered knowledge dissemination about malaria symptoms, preventive measures, and treatment protocols through workshops and community health worker training. The analysis revealed that the training significantly improved participants' understanding of malaria prevention methods (p<0.05) and increased their likelihood to seek appropriate healthcare services by 40% compared to baseline levels. This study provides evidence supporting the efficacy of community health worker-led programmes in enhancing knowledge and utilization of malaria prevention measures among rural women farmers. Future research should consider long-term impact evaluations, while policymakers could leverage these findings to integrate such training into existing community development initiatives. Treatment effect was estimated with $\text{logit}(p<em>i)=\beta</em>0+\beta^\top X_i$, and uncertainty reported using confidence-interval based inference.