Bottom-up approach to strengthen community-based malaria control strategy from community health workers’ perceptions of their past, present, and future: a qualitative study in Palawan, Philippines

BACKGROUND: Microscopists have active roles in bringing malaria diagnosis and treatment closer to households in Palawan, the highest malaria-endemic province in the Philippines. To accelerate the elimination of malaria in Palawan, we performed a study based on the bottom-up approach to provide profound data to strengthen this community-based malaria control from the microscopists’ point of view. METHODS: We performed a qualitative cross-sectional study in Palawan. Four focus group discussions with 50 microscopists were conducted in Palawan from November 2010 to February 2011. During the discussions, the following open-ended questions were addressed: motivation for applying to be microscopists in the “Past” category; job satisfaction, role, problems, and saddest and happiest experiences working as microscopists in the “Present” category; and willingness towards task shifting in the “Future” category. Data were transcribed and analyzed by framework analysis using the NVivo software program. RESULTS: The present study innovatively proposed the following strategies: reinforcement strategy (adequate supplies and settings), highly prioritized additional strategies (improving social status of microscopists, issuing a travel budget, and including indigenous populations), regional additional strategies (additional malaria control in the southern region and task shifting in the northern region), and less prioritized additional strategies (employment policy and health checkup). CONCLUSION: A bottom-up approach using microscopists’ perceptions would be a valuable method to propose practical and effective additional strategies for strengthening community-based malaria control.