Enhancing the Education and Understanding of Research in Community Health Workers in an Intervention Field Site in South India

Background: Community-level public health research engages a wide range of staff cadres. Community level workers with limited formal education are usually in first contact with the community and require training so that research interventions are carried out to high standards.

Method: In a community-based TB study in South India, a Professional Development Programme (PDP) was developed to optimize the quality of the research, and to make involvement in research more meaningful for all members of the research team. The programme started with a set of modules that were considered relevant for a community-based epidemiological study. Subsequently, new modules were developed based on the expressed needs of the study staff. Pre and post-tests were conducted for all modules. A qualitative assessment was conducted after 3 years.

Results: While initial 'pre-test' knowledge across modules was lower amongst community level field workers than staff of higher cadres, they achieved passing grade scores (>75%) with the programme. Longer term retention of knowledge over 6 months for the basic modules, was in excess of 75% for all staff. Focus groups discussions revealed that while many in the research team began work with an incomplete understanding of research methods and community health principles, investing time and resources in education beyond protocol training via the PDP realized long-term benefits to the research study and the individual staff, particularly the community level workers.

Conclusions: There is a need to enhance the capabilities of community health workers to be part of a research team in field settings, so as to optimize their performance while utilizing their existing skill sets.