Table 3.
Summary Table of the Included Articles
| First author* | Publication year | Study design | Country | Terms used for CHWs | Area of involvement | Target population |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Allen-Collinson et al. [49] | 2020 | Qualitative study | UK | Health Trainers | Smoking cessation, improving diet, reducing alcohol intake, increasing healthy physical activity, and addressing mental wellbeing issues | ‘Disadvantages’ populations in general |
| Ball & Nasr [50] | 2011 | Qualitative study | UK (Northern and central England) | Health Trainers | Healthcare access for ‘hard-to-reach’ community groups | Health trainer clients proved to be an extremely ‘hard-to-reach’, deprived group |
| Begh et al. (1) [57] | 2011 | Cluster Randomised controlled trial (RCT) | UK (Birmingham) | Outreach workers | Smoking cessation | Communities where more than 10% of the population were of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin |
| Begh et al. (2) [58] | 2011 | Qualitative study | ||||
| Brady & Keogh [48] | 2016 | Qualitative study | Ireland | Traveller community health workers | Access to health services & Asthma self-management | Traveller and Roma community |
| Brown et al. [70] | 2007 | Qualitative study | UK (London and Manchester) | Lay educator | Asthma self-management | Cultural West London and inner city & socially deprived areas in Manchester |
| Carver et al. [61] | 2012 | Qualitative study | UK (Scotland) | Outreach worker | Access to care/reduce health inequalities | These workers tend to work with clients in a natural setting by visiting the populations they serve, such as homeless or drug-using populations |
| Cook & Wills [51] | 2012 | Qualitative study | UK (London) | Health Trainers | Access to health care system & health promotion | Marginalized communities, including ‘harder-to-reach and disadvantaged’ groups |
| Furze et al. [67] | 2012 | RCT | UK | Lay workers | Angina management | Adults (aged 18 + years) with a diagnosis of angina following a positive symptom-limited exercise treadmill test in rapid access chest pain clinic; does not have any exclusion criteria. |
| Gale & Sidhu [52] | 2019 | Qualitative study | UK (Midlands) | Health Trainers | Cardiovascular disease | A deprived area called the Black Country. It has a very ethnically diverse population with significant spatial segregation between ethnic groups. |
| Gale et al. [62] | 2018 | Qualitative study | UK (Birmingham) | Lay health workers & pregnancy outreach workers (POW) | Maternity care | Each locality had different characteristics of deprivation: POW#1 and POW#2 were working in an inner city community with a large migrant population, POW#3 and POW#4 were working in a suburban area of the city, adjacent to a rural area, with a predominantly white working class population and POW#5 and POW#6 were working in an inner city community, with a more established multi-ethnic community |
| Gilworth et al. [68] | 2019 | Qualitative study | UK | Lay health workers | Pulmonary rehabilitation for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) | COPD patients |
| Goelen et al. [76] | 2010 | Individual level RCT | Belgium | Community peer volunteers | Breast cancer screening | Setting: Four semirural communities in Belgium. Sample: Women aged 50–69 years who had not had a mammogram |
| Hesselink & Harting [45] | 2011 | Qualitative study | The Netherlands | Community health workers | Maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) | Ethnic Turkish women |
| Hodgins et al. [72] | 2018 | Quasi experimental study | UK (Scotland) | Dental Health Support Workers | Dental/oral Health | All newborn children in Scotland that are referred to a dental health support worker |
| Hoens et al. [39] | 2021 | Realist evaluation | Belgium (Brussels) | Community health workers | Provide culturally competent care | Migrant families living in deprived urban areas of Brussels |
| Kennedy et al. [73] | 2005 | Qualitative study | UK | Expert Patients Programme Trainers | Management of chronic conditions, patient education | People with chronic conditions |
| Kennedy, L. [69]. | 2010 | Qualitative study | UK | Lay food and Health workers | Food and health initiatives | People from less-affluent neighbourhoods |
| Kenyon et al. [59] | 2016 | Prospective, pragmatic, individually RCT. | UK (Midlands) | POW | Maternity care | Nulliparous women under 28 weeks gestation with social risk factors |
| Kósa et al. [74] | 2020 | Quantitative analysis | Hungary | Health Mediators | Access to primary care services | Roma minority groups |
| López-Sánchez et al. [47] | 2021 | Quantitative analysis | Spain (Valencia) | Community health workers | Health literacy in the community and access to care | Persons in vulnerable situations in the city of Valencia |
| Lorente et al. [40] | 2021 | Qualitative study | 20 European countries | Community health workers | Sexual health support | Men Who Have Sex with Men |
| Martró et al. [46] | 2022 | Cross-sectional study | Spain | Community Health Worker | Hepatitis care | Pakistani adults |
| McWilliams et al. [64] | 2018 | Qualitative study | UK | Lay health workers | Cancer care | 5 separate lay groups: (1) completed cancer treatment; (2) friends/family of cancer patients; (3) cancer hospital volunteers; (4) cancer charity volunteers; and (5) members of the public |
| Netherwood [55] | 2007 | Pilot project | UK | Health Trainers | Access to care/ Reducing health inequalities | These areas also tend to have higher than average levels of unemployment, more single parent families and a higher proportion of black and minority ethnic groups, especially Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Caribbean communities |
| Rämgård & Avery [75] | 2022 | Qualitative study | Sweden | Lay health promotor | Health equity through health promotion | Low-income neighbourhood in the outskirts of Malmö, southern Sweden. |
| Roberts et al. [71] | 2012 | Costing study | UK | Lay educators | Asthma self-management | Eligible patients were adults aged 18 or over with clinician diagnosed asthma with persistent disease requiring regular preventative therapy. Participants also had evidence of unscheduled health care usage or increased medication for the treatment of an exacerbation in the 12 months prior to recruitment. |
| South et al. [63] | 2012 | Qualitative study | UK | Lay health workers | Health and well-being, breastfeeding, physical activity | A single community located in a disadvantaged urban area |
| Stone et al. [60] | 2020 | Qualitative study | UK | Telephone outreach workers | Cardiovascular risk assessment and management (= NHS health checks) | Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities |
| Thompson et al. [56] | 2018 | Pilot study for RCT | UK | Health Trainers | Provide support for lifestyle change, enhance mental well-being and signpost to appropriate services | People with experience of the criminal justice system. If they have served a custodial sentence, then they have to have been released for at least 2 months. The supervision period must have at least 7 months left at recruitment. |
| Vanden Bossche et al. (1) [37] | 2021 | RCT | Belgium (Ghent) | Community health workers | Psychosocial support | Eligible patients (1) had a limited social network; (2) were older than 18 years; (3) had a psychiatric history, or a precarious social context, or an uncertain residence status, or a chronic illness, or were going through a recent critical event such as bereavement or divorce, or were older than 65 years; (4) had a score of ≤ 7 on the screening questions for emotional support and ≥ 7 on the screening questions for anxiety |
| Vanden Bossche et al. (2) [38] | 2022 | Qualitative study | CHW provided support at home to vulnerable people at risk of becoming victims of fear and social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic | |||
| Verhagen et al. [41] | 2013 | Quasi experimental study | The Netherlands | Community health workers | Access to health care system | Elderly immigrants, aged 55 years and over, Living independently (alone or with others), Born in Turkey, Morocco, Moluccan Islands or descendant of Moluccan immigrants born in the Netherlands and lived in one of the Moluccan “camps” |
| Visram et al. [53] | 2015 | Qualitative study | UK | Lay health trainers | Cardiovascular risk assessment and management (= NHS health checks) | People aged 40–74 years without established disease living in socio-economic deprivation |
| White et al. [65] | 2019 | Qualitative study | UK | Lay health workers | Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) for COPD | Persons with a diagnosis of COPD; eligibility for PR treatment; and fluency in English |
| White et al. [54] | 2013 | Mixed methods | UK | Health trainers | Chronic disease management, mental health | Areas of deprivation |
| Wildman & Wildman[42] | 2021 | Cohort study | UK (Primary practices in North East England) | Community health workers | Type 2 diabetes care | UK patients aged 40 to 74 years with type 2 diabetes in a socio-economically deprived area |
| Wrede et al. [43] | 2021 | Cohort study | Sweden | Community health workers | Migrants’ mental health status | Migrants, primarily asylum seekers and newly arrived immigrants |
| Yoeli & Catan [66] | 2017 | Qualitative study | UK | Lay public health workers | Access to health care system | Anonymised urban estate in North East England, with a long-standing reputation for its socioeconomic deprivation and poor health, yet also for its strong community spirit and friendly people. |
| Yorick et al. [44] | 2021 | Cohort study | Tajikistan | Community health workers | Maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) | Rural farming communities in Tajikistan |
*Authors are alphabetically ordered