Impact of community health workers on improving identification and primary care of hypertension among the urban poor – findings from Chhattisgarh state of India

BACKGROUND: Hypertension is a major health problem globally and in India. Around 60% of people with hypertension in India are not aware that they have the condition. Less than 30% of individuals with hypertension are on treatment. Existing studies have indicated that community health workers (CHWs) can play a useful role in expanding the care for hypertension. Evaluations are needed to study the impact when an intervention is implemented by the government in its existing large-scale CHW programme to improve the identification, regular follow-up and medication adherence for hypertension. METHODS: Chhattisgarh state implemented a pilot intervention to improve screening and follow-up for hypertension by equipping Mitanin-CHWs to measure blood pressure (BP). The study design involved an intervention-group and a comparison-group of urban slum population. The survey covered 5974 individuals (30-79 years age) in intervention-group and 5131 in comparison-group. Multivariate analysis was conducted to find out the effect of intervention on the desired outcomes. RESULTS: In intervention-group, 80.2% of the individuals (30-79 years age) had been screened for hypertension whereas the proportion was 37.9% in comparison-group. For 47.0% of individuals in intervention-group, Mitanin CHW was the provider who measured BP for the first time. Around 16.3% of individuals in intervention-group and 9.5% in comparison-group had been diagnosed with hypertension. Around 85.9% of hypertension cases in intervention-group and 77.0% in comparison-group were on treatment. BP had been measured in preceding 30 days for 81.8% of hypertension-cases in intervention-group and 64.3% in comparison-group. Around 70.3% of hypertension-cases in intervention-group and 55.1% in comparison-group had taken their complete medication for last seven days. Multivariate analysis showed that CHW intervention was associated significantly with improvements in all the desired outcomes. CONCLUSION: Equipping the CHWs to measure BP was effective in increasing the screening and identification of hypertension, regular measurement of BP of individuals with hypertension and the adherence to medication. This shows the potential if the one-million strong work-force of Accredited-Social-Health-Activists (ASHA) CHWs in India gets equipped for this role. Governments need to provide a stronger policy push to get this materialised.