How Effective is Community-based Primary Health Care in Improving Child Health?
Excitement is rapidly growing concerning the potential for community-based primary health care (CBPHC) to accelerate progress in reducing the tragedy of millions of children dying world-wide each year from readily preventable or treatable conditions. Consequently, a review of the evidence concerning the effectiveness of community-based approaches is timely. This report to the Expert Panel attempts to summarize the current research findings concerning the effectiveness of CBPHC in improving the health of children in high-mortality, resource-poor settings. The review covers much – but not all – of what is known at present about community-based approaches to improve the nutritional status of children; to improve perinatal and neonatal health; to prevent and treat childhood pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria; to expand coverage of immunizations; to promote handwashing and family planning; to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV infection; and to improve child health through non-health
