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Table 3 Summary Table of the Included Articles

From: The role of community health workers in primary healthcare in the WHO-EU region: a scoping review

First author*

Publication year

Study design

Country

Terms used for CHWs

Area of involvement

Target population

Allen-Collinson et al. [49]

2020

Qualitative study

UK

Health Trainers

Smoking cessation, improving diet, reducing alcohol intake, increasing healthy physical activity, and addressing mental wellbeing issues

‘Disadvantages’ populations in general

Ball & Nasr [50]

2011

Qualitative study

UK (Northern and central England)

Health Trainers

Healthcare access for ‘hard-to-reach’ community groups

Health trainer clients proved to be an extremely ‘hard-to-reach’, deprived group

Begh et al. (1) [57]

2011

Cluster Randomised controlled trial (RCT)

UK (Birmingham)

Outreach workers

Smoking cessation

Communities where more than 10% of the population were of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin

Begh et al. (2) [58]

2011

Qualitative study

Brady & Keogh [48]

2016

Qualitative study

Ireland

Traveller community health workers

Access to health services & Asthma self-management

Traveller and Roma community

Brown et al. [70]

2007

Qualitative study

UK (London and Manchester)

Lay educator

Asthma self-management

Cultural West London and inner city & socially deprived areas in Manchester

Carver et al. [61]

2012

Qualitative study

UK (Scotland)

Outreach worker

Access to care/reduce health inequalities

These workers tend to work with clients in a natural setting by visiting the populations they serve, such as homeless or drug-using populations

Cook & Wills [51]

2012

Qualitative study

UK (London)

Health Trainers

Access to health care system & health promotion

Marginalized communities, including ‘harder-to-reach and disadvantaged’ groups

Furze et al. [67]

2012

RCT

UK

Lay workers

Angina management

Adults (aged 18 + years) with a diagnosis of angina following a positive symptom-limited exercise treadmill test in rapid access chest pain clinic; does not have any exclusion criteria.

Gale & Sidhu [52]

2019

Qualitative study

UK (Midlands)

Health Trainers

Cardiovascular disease

A deprived area called the Black Country. It has a very ethnically diverse population with significant spatial segregation between ethnic groups.

Gale et al. [62]

2018

Qualitative study

UK (Birmingham)

Lay health workers & pregnancy outreach workers (POW)

Maternity care

Each locality had different characteristics of deprivation: POW#1 and POW#2 were working in an inner city community with a large migrant population, POW#3 and POW#4 were working in a suburban area of the city, adjacent to a rural area, with a predominantly white working class population and POW#5 and POW#6 were working in an inner city community, with a more established multi-ethnic community

Gilworth et al. [68]

2019

Qualitative study

UK

Lay health workers

Pulmonary rehabilitation for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

COPD patients

Goelen et al. [76]

2010

Individual level RCT

Belgium

Community peer volunteers

Breast cancer screening

Setting: Four semirural communities in Belgium. Sample: Women aged 50–69 years who had not had a mammogram

Hesselink & Harting [45]

2011

Qualitative study

The Netherlands

Community health workers

Maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH)

Ethnic Turkish women

Hodgins et al. [72]

2018

Quasi experimental study

UK (Scotland)

Dental Health Support Workers

Dental/oral Health

All newborn children in Scotland that are referred to a dental health support worker

Hoens et al. [39]

2021

Realist evaluation

Belgium (Brussels)

Community health workers

Provide culturally competent care

Migrant families living in deprived urban areas of Brussels

Kennedy et al. [73]

2005

Qualitative study

UK

Expert Patients Programme Trainers

Management of chronic conditions, patient education

People with chronic conditions

Kennedy, L. [69].

2010

Qualitative study

UK

Lay food and Health workers

Food and health initiatives

People from less-affluent neighbourhoods

Kenyon et al. [59]

2016

Prospective, pragmatic, individually RCT.

UK (Midlands)

POW

Maternity care

Nulliparous women under 28 weeks gestation with social risk factors

Kósa et al. [74]

2020

Quantitative analysis

Hungary

Health Mediators

Access to primary care services

Roma minority groups

López-Sánchez et al. [47]

2021

Quantitative analysis

Spain (Valencia)

Community health workers

Health literacy in the community and access to care

Persons in vulnerable situations in the city of Valencia

Lorente et al. [40]

2021

Qualitative study

20 European countries

Community health workers

Sexual health support

Men Who Have Sex with Men

Martró et al. [46]

2022

Cross-sectional study

Spain

Community Health Worker

Hepatitis care

Pakistani adults

McWilliams et al. [64]

2018

Qualitative study

UK

Lay health workers

Cancer care

5 separate lay groups: (1) completed cancer treatment; (2) friends/family of cancer patients; (3) cancer hospital volunteers; (4) cancer charity volunteers; and (5) members of the public

Netherwood [55]

2007

Pilot project

UK

Health Trainers

Access to care/ Reducing health inequalities

These areas also tend to have higher than average levels of unemployment, more single parent families and a higher proportion of black and minority ethnic groups, especially Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Caribbean communities

Rämgård & Avery [75]

2022

Qualitative study

Sweden

Lay health promotor

Health equity through health promotion

Low-income neighbourhood in the outskirts of Malmö, southern Sweden.

Roberts et al. [71]

2012

Costing study

UK

Lay educators

Asthma self-management

Eligible patients were adults aged 18 or over with clinician diagnosed asthma with persistent disease requiring regular preventative therapy. Participants also had evidence of unscheduled health care usage or increased medication for the treatment of an exacerbation in the 12 months prior to recruitment.

South et al. [63]

2012

Qualitative study

UK

Lay health workers

Health and well-being, breastfeeding, physical activity

A single community located in a disadvantaged urban area

Stone et al. [60]

2020

Qualitative study

UK

Telephone outreach workers

Cardiovascular risk assessment and management (= NHS health checks)

Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities

Thompson et al. [56]

2018

Pilot study for RCT

UK

Health Trainers

Provide support for lifestyle change, enhance mental well-being and signpost to appropriate services

People with experience of the criminal justice system. If they have served a custodial sentence, then they have to have been released for at least 2 months. The supervision period must have at least 7 months left at recruitment.

Vanden Bossche et al. (1) [37]

2021

RCT

Belgium (Ghent)

Community health workers

Psychosocial support

Eligible patients (1) had a limited social network; (2) were older than 18 years; (3) had a psychiatric history, or a precarious social context, or an uncertain residence status, or a chronic illness, or were going through a recent critical event such as bereavement or divorce, or were older than 65 years; (4) had a score of ≤ 7 on the screening questions for emotional support and ≥ 7 on the screening questions for anxiety

Vanden Bossche et al. (2) [38]

2022

Qualitative study

CHW provided support at home to vulnerable people at risk of becoming victims of fear and social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic

Verhagen et al. [41]

2013

Quasi experimental study

The Netherlands

Community health workers

Access to health care system

Elderly immigrants, aged 55 years and over, Living independently (alone or with others), Born in Turkey, Morocco, Moluccan Islands or descendant of Moluccan immigrants born in the Netherlands and lived in one of the Moluccan “camps”

Visram et al. [53]

2015

Qualitative study

UK

Lay health trainers

Cardiovascular risk assessment and management (= NHS health checks)

People aged 40–74 years without established disease living in socio-economic deprivation

White et al. [65]

2019

Qualitative study

UK

Lay health workers

Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) for COPD

Persons with a diagnosis of COPD; eligibility for PR treatment; and fluency in English

White et al. [54]

2013

Mixed methods

UK

Health trainers

Chronic disease management, mental health

Areas of deprivation

Wildman & Wildman[42]

2021

Cohort study

UK (Primary practices in North East England)

Community health workers

Type 2 diabetes care

UK patients aged 40 to 74 years with type 2 diabetes in a socio-economically deprived area

Wrede et al. [43]

2021

Cohort study

Sweden

Community health workers

Migrants’ mental health status

Migrants, primarily asylum seekers and newly arrived immigrants

Yoeli & Catan [66]

2017

Qualitative study

UK

Lay public health workers

Access to health care system

Anonymised urban estate in North East England, with a long-standing reputation for its socioeconomic deprivation and poor health, yet also for its strong community spirit and friendly people.

Yorick et al. [44]

2021

Cohort study

Tajikistan

Community health workers

Maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH)

Rural farming communities in Tajikistan

  1. *Authors are alphabetically ordered