Evaluating the Impact of a Community Health Worker Program in Neno, Malawi: A Stepped-Wedge Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

The objectives of the household model program are:

1. Timely case finding through education and screening for common, treatable conditions;
2. Linkage to care for symptomatic clients along with those qualifying through routine screening;
3. Ongoing support and accompaniment of patients in care, including adherence support, psychosocial support, and tracking of missed patient visits (NCDs, chronic care, Antenatal care, postnatal care); and
4. Health education for common health conditions and prevention and management of these conditions to optimize prevention, health services uptake, and health management behaviors in the household.

All CHWs in Neno will be reassigned and trained in the Household model in a staggered rollout over two years. The maximum number of trainees per group is capped at 60 participants, with some trainings occurring with two groups of CHWs per catchment area. CHWs will receive a 4 to 5 day foundational training, followed by half-day refresher trainings each quarter. CHW training will be evaluated through the following tools: training attendance count; CHW knowledge assessment; CHW skill assessment; CHW refresher assessment; and overall through a training dashboard.

The implementation of the new CHW model is designed so that it may be evaluated as a stepped wedge, cluster-randomized trial (SW-CRT). The stepped-wedge study design was selected for a number of reasons. First, the training of CHWs needs to be staggered due to training capacity constraints. Second, all sites in Neno will receive the intervention. And third, the stepped wedge RCT design permits estimation of the causal effects of the intervention.

Eleven intervention sites were clustered into six groups based on population size such that each group had manageable number of CHWs to train. The order of implementation for these six sites was randomized by a third party. In the SW-CRT study design, each cluster crosses over from control to intervention group until all groups receive the intervention.