Assessment of factors influencing performance of community health volunteers in detection and reporting of priority diseases in Kwanza sub-county, Trans-nzoia county, Kenya

Abstract

The report released by the World Health Organization in the year 2006 acknowledged that there was a critical shortage of professional health workers which was posing a challenge to provision of healthcare services, particularly in low income countries. In Kenya, community health volunteer ‘s workforce was adopted as a cost effective strategy in addressing the health needs of the underserved communities. However, despite the engagement of CHVs in the Kenyan healthcare system there is still increase in the number of cases that occur at the community level which are not reported to the link facilities. Currently, there is no evidence available on what influences CHVs performance in disease surveillance in Kwanza Sub county. The reporting rate for the Sub county was 47% in 2019 which is below the national target of 80%. This study therefore sought to asses the factors influencing performance of community health volunteers in detection and reporting of priority diseases. Specifically, the study aimed at determining the influence of socio-demographic factors on detection and reporting priority diseases, establish timeliness and completeness of disease surveillance reports submitted by the CHVs, identify priority diseases reported by community health volunteers and establish the health system factors influencing detection and reporting of priority diseases. The study employed a descriptive crosssectional research design where data was collected from 156 of the sampled 199 community health volunteers. Quota sampling method was used to select the respondents from the 33 community units. A semi -structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents. Descriptive analysis involved the use of frequencies, percentages, mean and standard deviation. Inferential analysis involved use of multiple regression in order to determine the strength of relationship between the independent variables (socio demographic and health system factors) and detection and reporting priority diseases. Significance was tested at 5%. Results from the multiple regression analysis indicated that that socio demographic factors(p=00.1), and health system factors (p=0.001) were the main influencers of performance of community health volunteers in Kwanza Sub County. The study also established that provision of reporting tools (p=002) and challenges faced by community health volunteers (p=0.003) were significant predictors of performance of community health volunteers in detection and reporting priority diseases in Kwanza Sub County. The study concluded that that socio demographic and health system factors were significant predictors of performance of community health volunteers in Kwanza Sub County. The study concludes that the County government of Trans nzoia should develop a policy to guide implementation of community health services and put more emphasis on provision of stipends to motivate the community health volunteers in order to improve their performance in of detection and reporting priority diseases