Community Health Workers in the Covid-19 pandemic: scoping review

ABSTRACT

This paper aimed to systematize and analyze the literature that addresses the role of Community Health Workers (CHWs) in addressing the Covid-19 pandemic. This scoping review was conducted in the Embase, Lilacs, SciELO, Medline, and Cochrane Virtual Libraries databases. It includes publications from January to December 2020, and the selected studies were submitted to analysis, considering the following categories: practices, training, working conditions, and legitimacy. Twenty-nine studies were included in the review whose CHW performance backdrops were African, South American, North American, Asian, and European countries. The results revealed diversified approaches to practice in the countries studied that involve care, surveillance, health communication, education, administrative, intersectoral articula- tion, and social mobilization actions. The training received does not seem to correspond to the list of practices and expected impact of the CHWs. Working conditions remain substandard, with some extra incentives offered in different backdrops. The recognition and legitimacy before the health authorities reveal the dispute over the direction of health care models and the scope of social protection systems in different countries.

KEYWORDS Community Health Workers; Coronavirus infections; Public health; Global health