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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Education and Promotion
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1456868
This article is part of the Research Topic Ensuring Public Health: The Active Role of Healthcare Professionals View all articles

Interventions on informal healthcare providers to improve the delivery of healthcare services in low-and middle-income countries: A systematic review

Provisionally accepted
Saibal Das Saibal Das Shweta Khare Shweta Khare *Jaran Eriksen Jaran Eriksen Vishal Diwan Vishal Diwan Cecilia Stålsby Lundborg Cecilia Stålsby Lundborg Kristina Skender Kristina Skender
  • Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet (KI), Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective: Informal healthcare providers (IHCPs) play a big role in health systems in low-and middleincome countries (LMICs) and are often the first point of contact for healthcare in rural and underserved areas where formal healthcare infrastructure is insufficient or absent. This study was performed to systematically review the literature on various interventions ontargeting IHCPs in improving the delivery of healthcare services in LMICs.Methods: PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane CENTRAL databases were searched for studies that assessed any type of intervention among IHCPs to improve the delivery of healthcare services in any LMIC. Outcomes included changes in knowledge, attitude, and reported practice of appropriate case diagnosis and management; improved referral services; effective contraceptive use; and medication appropriateness (PROSPERO ID: CRD42024521739).

    Keywords: Healthcare services, informal healthcare providers (IHCPs), intervention, low-and middle-income countries Normal, left

    Received: 29 Jun 2024; Accepted: 04 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Das, Khare, Eriksen, Diwan, Stålsby Lundborg and Skender. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Shweta Khare, Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet (KI), Stockholm, 171 77, Stockholm, Sweden

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.