Cholera outbreaks in Ugandan rural areas have necessitated effective community health worker (CHW) programmes for timely response and control. A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted using data from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and observational studies published between and. Studies included had comparable CHW programmes targeting cholera in Ugandan rural areas, with outcomes measured against control groups or standard interventions. The pooled analysis revealed a significant reduction in cholera incidence by 48% (95% CI: 37%, 59%) among communities where CHWs were deployed compared to those without such programmes. Community engagement themes included increased hygiene awareness and improved water sanitation practices, with 62% of participants reporting enhanced knowledge about cholera prevention. CHW programmes significantly contributed to reducing cholera incidence in Ugandan rural areas, emphasising the need for sustained community involvement and programme scalability. Policy makers should prioritise funding and infrastructure support for CHW training and deployment, alongside community education initiatives. Future research should explore long-term sustainability and cost-effectiveness of these interventions. Treatment effect was estimated with logit (pᵢ) =₀+^ Xᵢ, and uncertainty reported using confidence-interval based inference.
Ssebulokobo et al. (Wed,) studied this question.