Menu ENN Search

Can low-literate community health workers treat severe acute malnutrition? A study of simplified algorithm and tools in South Sudan

Summary of research1

By Naoko Kozuki, Casie Tesfai, Annie Zhou and Elburg van Boetzelaer

The authors would like to acknowledge financial support from the Eleanor Crook Foundation.

Introduction

Low access to and coverage of acute malnutrition treatment are persistent challenges due primarily to distance from health services, high opportunity costs to caregivers, insecurity and lack of awareness of the signs and symptoms of malnutrition (Bliss, Njenga, Stoltzfus & Pelletier, 2016; Puett & Guerrero, 2015; Rogers, Myatt, Woodhead, Guerrero & Alvarez, 2015). Community-based delivery has been shown to increase the timely and effective treatment of childhood illnesses in low-resource contexts, such as through the integrated community case management (iCCM) of childhood illness strategy. ICCM equips community health workers (CHW) with training, simplified diagnostics, supervision and an uninterrupted supply of drugs to provide timely treatment for uncomplicated pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria in the community. Community-based delivery models have also been tested to treat uncomplicated severe acute malnutrition (SAM). Recent studies from Pakistan, Malawi and Mali have shown positive outcomes in SAM treatment delivered by CHWs when compared to standard care at health facilities (Linneman et al, 2007; Puett, Coates, Alderman & Sadler, 2013). However, existing evidence is for literate CHW cadres only.

Recognising the burden of malnutrition to be higher in areas with lower education, income and healthcare access, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) developed tools and a protocol adapted for low-literate CHWs to treat uncomplicated SAM cases in their communities. A detailed description of the design process is available in Field Exchange Issue 52 (Tesfai, Marron, Kim & Makura, 2016). The five resulting tools were: 1) a patient register, 2) modified mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) tape, 3) weight scale decal to identify the daily dosage of ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), 4) weekly RUTF dosage calculator, and 5) pictorial counselling cards (Figure 1). Following this, the IRC conducted a feasibility study to assess the ability of low-literate community-based distributors (CBD, the CHW cadre in South Sudan) to adhere to the treatment protocol using these tools. The treatment protocol followed South Sudan national guidelines for treatment of uncomplicated SAM, but MUAC was the only anthropometric tool used for admission, monitoring and discharge, and children were treated until fully recovered.  Children were provided RUTF based on weight according to South Sudan national guidelines, but with half sachets rounded up. Treatment outcomes of children included in this study will be available in a future publication.

Figure 1: Simplified tools developed by IRC

Methods

A mixed-methods feasibility study was conducted to assess adherence of low-literate CBDs to a simplified SAM treatment protocol, the outcomes of children treated in the community by these CBDs, and the community acceptability of CBDs providing SAM treatment. Sixty CBDs in Aweil South County, Northern Bahr el Ghazal, South Sudan were randomly selected to receive training on the simplified protocol and tools, 57 of whom completed the training. Those who met a predetermined performance standard on a post-training assessment (n=44) were deployed to treat uncomplicated SAM in their communities. The checklist used to assess the performance is available in Annex 3 of the full report. Between May and September 2017, 320 SAM children were passively identified and enrolled, asked to return for weekly treatment, and followed until they reached a discharge outcome, with children treated to full recovery (two consecutive weeks with MUAC ≥12.5cm); 308 children had eligible results. CBD performance assessments were conducted during bi-weekly supervisory visits by research staff. 

Results

In a performance assessment immediately after training, 91% of the CBDs passed the predetermined 80% performance score cut-off and 49% of the CBDs had perfect scores. Research officers conducted 141 case management observations during the study period, resulting in a mean score of 89.9% (95% CI: 86.4-96.0%). For each performance assessment completed, the final performance score of the CBD rose by 2.0% (95% CI: 0.3-3.7%). Treatment delivered by CBDs met SPHERE performance indicators, even when looking at treatment outcomes to full recovery. In total 75% of children were discharged as fully recovered, 15% defaulted from treatment, 9% were discharged as non-respondent, and no child was reported to have died under treatment. The median time of treatment to full recovery was eight weeks. All CBDs reported feeling proud of treating children for SAM and some gained respect in the community for this new responsibility. Overall, caregivers trusted CBDs to treat their children, but some caregivers and community leaders also expressed reservations that CBDs were keeping the RUTF for themselves or providing treatment to select children only.

Discussion

The high adherence by CBDs to a simplified treatment protocol in this study and overall local acceptability of this service show promise for deploying CBDs to improve access of acute malnutrition treatment, regardless of their literacy levels, in remote communities. The upfront investment to design tools and protocol suited to the skill set of CHWs in difficult contexts is invaluable in setting frontline health workers up for success and assuring programme effectiveness. In the hard-to-reach areas of fragile contexts with limited healthcare access, there is particular potential for the integration of nutrition treatment into the community-based service delivery model of iCCM to better stem the infection-malnutrition cycle and more effectively reduce the incidence of both. 

A challenge experienced in developing a low-literacy protocol was how to monitor whether cases are stationary, regressing or progressing slowly in treatment. To address this, smaller MUAC colour zones were created and a safeguard for referral after four consecutive weeks in one colour zone was put in place. Based on the larger-than-normal proportion of referrals from this study (37%), further exploration is needed to adjust this safeguard. 

Conclusion

Proper adaptations of tools and protocols can empower community health worker cadres with no formal education to provide critical lifesaving health services successfully. These results, combined with high recovery rates of the enrolled children, show great potential to increase effective coverage of acute malnutrition treatment in fragile contexts. The IRC is currently leading a consortium of four other non-governmental organisations (Action Against Hunger, Concern Worldwide, Malaria Consortium and Save the Children) to pilot versions of these tools adapted for other contexts to create a greater body of evidence behind CHW-delivery of acute malnutrition treatment.

For more information, please contact Casie Tesfai.


Endnote

1Link to full report here (treatment protocol available on pages 78-80) and Van Boetzelaer E, Zhour A, Tesfai C, Kozuki N. Performance of low- literate community health workers treating severe acute malnutrition in South Sudan. Matern Child Nutr. Pending publication in early 2019. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/17408709.


References

Bliss JR, Njenga M, Stoltzfus RJ & Pelletier DL. (2016). Stigma as a barrier to treatment for child acute malnutrition in Marsabit County, KenyaMatern Child Nutr, 12(1), 125-138. doi:10.1111/mcn.12198

Linneman Z, Matilsky D, Ndekha M, Manary MJ, Maleta K & Manary MJ. (2007). A large-scale operational study of home-based therapy with ready-to-use therapeutic food in childhood malnutrition in MalawiMatern Child Nutr, 3(3), 206-215. doi:10.1111/j.1740-8709.2007.00095.x

Puett C, Coates J, Alderman H and Sadler K. (2013). Quality of care for severe acute malnutrition delivered by community health workers in southern BangladeshMatern Child Nutr, 9(1), 130-142. doi:10.1111/j.1740-8709.2012.00409.x

Puett C & Guerrero S. (2015). Barriers to access for severe acute malnutrition treatment servies in Pakistan and Ethiopia: a comparative qualitative analysis. Public Health Nutr, 18(10), 1873-1882. doi:10.1017/S1368980014002444

Rogers E, Myatt M, Woodhead S, Guerrero S & Alvarez JL. (2015). Coverage of community-based management of severe acute malnutrition programmes in twenty-one countries, 2012-2013. PLoS One, 10(6), e0128666. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0128666

Tesfai C, Marron B, Kim A & Makura I. (2016). Enabling low-literacy community health workers to treat uncomplicated SAM as part of community case management: innovation and field tests. Retrieved from www.ennonline.net/fex/52/communityhealthworkerssam

More like this

FEX: Community health worker-led treatment for uncomplicated wasting: insights from the RISE study

View this article as a pdf Lisez cet article en français ici By Bethany Marron on behalf of the RISE study consortium Bethany Marron is a nutrition advisor and former...

FEX: Enabling low-literacy community health workers to treat uncomplicated SAM as part of community case management: innovation and field tests

By Casie Tesfai, Bethany Marron, Anna Kim and Irene Makura Casie Tesfai is a Nutrition Technical Advisor at the International Rescue Committee in New York, where she provides...

FEX: Previous Field Exchange content on continuum of acute malnutrition care

View this article as a pdf Content previously published in Field Exchange is also relevant to this issue's focus on continuity of care for acutely malnourished children. You...

en-net: Where can I find simplified tools for community-level treatment of acute malnutrition?

Today, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) is launching a set of simplified tools we developed to guide low-literate CHWs through the diagnosis and treatment of acute...

FEX: Community health worker-led treatment for uncomplicated wasting: insights from the RISE study

This is a summary of a Field Exchange field article that was included in issue 64. The original article was authored by Bethany Marron on behalf of the RISE study...

FEX: A series of three related published papers share findings regarding quality of care, treatment outcomes and cost-effectiveness of uncomplicated SAM treatment delivered by community health workers (CHWs) in rural Mali.

By Eleanor Rogers, Karen Martínez, Jose Luis Alvarez Morán, Franck G. B. Alé, Pilar Charle, Saul Guerrero, Natalie Sessions and Chloe Puett Quality of...

FEX: Key findings from the Click-MUAC Project

Summary of presentation1 View this article as a pdf By Angeline Grant, Zvia Shwirtz, James Njiru, André Briend and Mark Myatt Angeline Grant is Senior Nutrition and...

FEX: Modelling an alternative nutrition protocol generalisable to outpatient (MANGO) study

View this article as a pdf Upcoming research Action Against Hunger conducts operational research with academic partners to contribute to building the scientific and...

FEX: En-net update

By Tamsin Walters, en-net moderator Over the past four months (1st October 2015 to 17th January 2016), 56 questions have been posted on en-net generating 206 responses....

en-net: OTP - Reduced frequency of visits in insecure areas or non-functioning health system

Standard outpatient treatment of uncomplicated SAM requires children to attend health/ nutrition centres weekly for follow-up visits and RUTF. In insecure areas and/ or...

en-net: Nutrition Research Manager - South Sudan

Nutrition Research Manager Sector: Research Location: South Sudan Employee Type: Regular Employee Category: Full Time Description Job Purpose/Objective: The IRC is...

FEX: High OTP coverage through the Ministry of Health in Chad

By Casie Tesfai Casie Tesfai is currently the Nutrition Technical Advisor for the International Rescue Committee based in New York. She has 10 years of nutrition experience...

FEX: Substandard discharge rules in current severe acute malnutrition management protocols: An overlooked source of ineffectiveness for programmes?

View this article as a pdf Lisez cet article en français ici By Benjamin Guesdon and Dominique Roberfroid Benjamin Guesdon is a nutrition and health research advisor...

FEX: Report on innovations in CMAM

By Anne Marie Kueter, Claudine Prudhon, Emily Keane and Megan Gayford The implementation of community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) as the standard model of...

FEX: ComPAS trial in South Sudan and Kenya: Headline findings and experiences

View this article as a pdf Lisez cet article en français ici By Bethany Marron, Pamela Onyo, Eunice N Musyoki, Susan Were Adongo and Jeanette Bailey Bethany Marron is...

FEX: Simplifying the response to childhood malnutrition: MSF’s experience with MUAC-based (and oedema) programming

By Kevin P.Q. Phelan, Candelaria Lanusse, Saskia van der Kam, Pascale Delchevalerie, Nathalie Avril and Kerstin Hanson Kevin P.Q. Phelan was the Nutrition Working Group Leader...

FEX: Regional perspectives on simplified approaches for the management of children with acute malnutrition: West and Central Africa

View this article as a pdf Lisez cet article en français ici By Sophie Woodhead, Dolores Rio and Noel Zagre Sophie Woodhead is a Nutrition Specialist with UNICEF in...

FEX: Traitements administrés par les agents de santé communautaires dans les cas d’émaciation sans complications : enseignements tirés de l’étude RISE

Read an English version of this article here Par Bethany Marron, pour le compte du consortium d'étude RISE Bethany Marron est conseillère en nutrition et...

FEX: Relapse and post-discharge body composition of children treated for acute malnutrition using a simplified, combined protocol

View this article as a pdf Research snapshot1 Severe and moderate acute malnutrition (SAM and MAM) affect more than 50 million children worldwide. Despite gains in the...

en-net: How do we put in place Simplified protocols for management of acute malnutrition in the context of covid 19?

Welcome to share with you the training of trainers, online and offline that Action against Hunger, has developed to train community health workers in acute malnutrition...

Close

Reference this page

Naoko Kozuki, Casie Tesfai, Annie Zhou and Elburg van Boetzelaer (). Can low-literate community health workers treat severe acute malnutrition? A study of simplified algorithm and tools in South Sudan. Field Exchange 59, January 2019. p30. www.ennonline.net/fex/59/samtoolssudan

(ENN_6234)

Close

Download to a citation manager

The below files can be imported into your preferred reference management tool, most tools will allow you to manually import the RIS file. Endnote may required a specific filter file to be used.