Things That Work - Health Visitors
This is the first post in an occasional series where I talk about interventions that have been proven to work in global health. Health visitors, whether they are nurses, doctors, or trained volunteers can improve pregnancy outcomes, reduce infant mortality rates, and reduce the transmission of infectious diseases like tuberculosis and HIV. When people ask me in conversation about what we can do to make things better, this is almost always the example I give as an answer.
Your health visitor is a health care provider or trained volunteer, who can advise women on child health and healthy pregnancy, identify the symptoms of infectious diseases prevalent in that community, tracks children's height and weight, and refer to health care providers as needed. The health visitor may also be able to provide contraception such as birth control pills or condoms.
The classic example of health visitors is in Bangladesh, where the contraceptive prevalence rate (the percentage of couples using contraception) increased from 8% in 1975 to 25% in 1985, largely due to home visits by family welfare assistants, who made home visits to women to discuss family planning. In 1975, the average family size in Bangladesh was 7.3 children. In 1997 it was 3.3.
However, home visits to improve health have been shown to be effective all over the world, not just in Bangladesh. They are improving maternal and child health in India, improving child health in South Africa, and supporting early childhood development in Philadelphia.
More Information
For a thoughtful discussion of village health workers and hierarchical health systems, check out HealthWright.
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