Evaluation of a Community Health Worker Project in Three Guatemalan Villages

While community health care workers (CHCW) are being implemented in several developing countries, there is little information as to their effectiveness in reducing childhood malnutrition and mortality. Our study was conducted in three Guatemalan villages and aimed to investigate trends in utilization of the CHCWs and whether or not they are correlated with either the socio-economic status (SES) of the caregiver or the care receiver, as it may have implications for how CHCWs are chosen in the future. We found that in larger more suburban villages CHCWs were utilized less often, and were not necessarily serving those in the greatest need, while in the rural village surveyed CHCWs did seem to visit those of the lower SES with greater frequency. There was no correlation between the SES of the CHCW and their propensity to visit people of the same or different SES