Dataset Information

What is community engagement and how can it drive malaria elimination? Case studies and stakeholder interviews.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In light of increasing complexity of identifying and treating malaria cases in low transmission settings, operational solutions are needed to increase effective delivery of interventions. Community engagement (CE) is at the forefront of this conversation given the shift toward creating local and site-specific solutions. Malaria programmes often confuse CE with providing information to the community or implementing community-based interventions. This study seeks to expand on CE approaches for malaria by looking to a variety of health and development programmes for lessons that can be applied to malaria elimination.

Methods

Qualitative data was collected from key informant interviews and community-based focus group discussions. Manual analysis was conducted with a focus on key principles, programme successes and challenges, the operational framework, and any applicable results.

Results

Ten programmes were included in the analysis: Ebola, HIV/Hepatitis C, Guinea worm, malaria, nutrition, and water, sanitation and hygiene. Seven focus group discussions (FGDs) with 69 participants, 49 key informant (KI) interviews with programme staff, and 7 KI interviews with thought leaders were conducted between October-April 2018. Participants discussed the critical role that village leaders and community health workers play in CE. Many programmes stated understanding community priorities is key for CE and that CE should be proactive and iterative. A major theme was prioritizing bi-directional interpersonal communication led by local community health workers. Programmes reported that measuring CE is difficult, particularly since CE is ongoing and fluid.

Conclusions

Results overwhelmingly suggest that CE must be an iterative process that relies on early involvement, frequent feedback and active community participation to be successful. Empowering districts and communities in planning and executing community-based interventions is necessary. Communities affected by the disease will ultimately achieve malaria elimination. For this to happen, the community itself must define, believe in, and commit to strategies to interrupt transmission.

SUBMITTER: Baltzell K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6637529 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

What is community engagement and how can it drive malaria elimination? Case studies and stakeholder interviews.

Baltzell Kimberly K Harvard Kelly K Hanley Marguerite M Gosling Roly R Chen Ingrid I

Malaria journal 20190717 1

<h4>Background</h4>In light of increasing complexity of identifying and treating malaria cases in low transmission settings, operational solutions are needed to increase effective delivery of interventions. Community engagement (CE) is at the forefront of this conversation given the shift toward creating local and site-specific solutions. Malaria programmes often confuse CE with providing information to the community or implementing community-based interventions. This study seeks to expand on CE ...[more]

PMID: 31315631

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Project description:Community engagement (CE) is important for malaria prevention, control and ultimately elimination. As the decline of malaria has plateaued over the last 5 years, strengthening CE approaches will be necessary to enhance health promotion practice and policy to drive malaria transmission down further. Countries have adopted a wide range of public health intervention approaches for malaria prevention and control that best suit their context. This review will examine the existing evidence on the various CE approaches adopted by malaria programmes across the world and their outcomes. METHODOLOGY AND ANALYSIS: The review methodology will follow the updated Joanna Briggs Institute guide for scoping review, 2017, which is based on the framework developed by Arksey and O'Malley and further developed by Levac Colquhoun and O'Brien. Proquest, Web of Knowledge and Medline will be searched for publications from January 2000 to 31 March 2021 while Google search engine will be used to find any grey literature. The eligibility criteria will be as follows: review will include primary studies written in the English language using appropriate study designs and methods, including quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods designs; and case, programme or project reports. Information on CE approaches designed specifically for malaria prevention, control, elimination and their outcomes will be explored. Subheadings and free text terms for 'community engagement' and 'malaria' will be used for the search. The article screening and data extraction will be examined by two reviewers after the initial search, and any disputes will be resolved by a third reviewer through discussion. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for scoping reviews guide will be used to present the review methods and the results from the search. The scoping review results will identify and map the available evidences, sources of information and research gaps in the area of CE as one approach for malaria prevention, control and/or elimination. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This study only aims to review secondary sources and does not require human research ethics committee approval. The findings of the scoping review will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal for wider dissemination.

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Dataset Information

What is community engagement and how can it drive malaria elimination? Case studies and stakeholder interviews.

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

What is community engagement and how can it drive malaria elimination? Case studies and stakeholder interviews.

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