Effectiveness of an action-oriented educational intervention in ensuring long term improvement of knowledge, attitudes and practices of community health workers in maternal and infant health: a randomized controlled study

BACKGROUND: The potential role of Community Health Workers (CHWs) in improving maternal and child health outcomes, particularly in low and middle-income countries and in disadvantaged communities, is receiving increased attention. Adequate and focused training is among the key requisites for enhancing CHWs performances and research is necessary to identify effective training methods. METHODS: A randomized controlled study was designed to assess the effectiveness of a training course in improving knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of CHWs regarding maternal and infant health. Seventy-eight CHWs belonging to Family Health Units in the city of Recife, Brazil were randomly allocated to intervention and control groups. The intervention group took part in a four-day interactive training course based on an action-oriented guide to perform home visits to pregnant women and their infants throughout pregnancy and infancy until 9 months of age. KAP in intervention group after training and after 1 year were compared to control group and to baseline. RESULTS: Fifty-nine CHWs completed all KAP assessments (31 in intervention and 28 in control group). Baseline characteristics were similar in both groups. At 1 year from training, the intervention group had higher overall KAP score (120.65 vs. 108.19, p < 0.001) as well as knowledge (47.45 vs. 40.54, p < 0.001), practice (53.45 vs. 49.11, p < 0.001) and attitudes scores (19.74 vs. 18.81, p = 0.047) than the control group. Moreover, at 1 year from training, the intervention group maintained significant improvements in overall KAP score (120.65 vs. 106.55, p < 0.001) as well as in knowledge (45.45 vs. 42.13, p < 0.001), and practice (53.45 vs. 45.29, p < 0.001) scores with respect to baseline. In the control group, overall KAP (106.59 vs. 108.19, p = 0.345) as well as separate knowledge, attitudes and practices scores remained unchanged. CONCLUSIONS: A four-day interactive training course on action-oriented home visits to pregnant women and infants produced a sustained improvement of CHWs’ KAP and may represent a model to ensure retention of acquired competences. TRIAL REGISTRATION: RBR-9gchqr. Date registered: July 21, 2018 (Retrospectively registered). ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12909-018-1332-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.