A Systematic Review of the Effectiveness of Community-Based Primary Health Care in Improving Child Health: Purpose and Methodology

In 2005, the Working Group on Community-Based Primary Health Care (CBPHC) established a Task Force for a systematic review of the effectiveness of CBPHC in improving child health, co-chaired by Henry Perry and Paul Freeman. The ultimate aim of this review is to strengthen international policy to improve child health. Subsequently the Task Force received a small grant from the Department of Child and Adolescent Health and Development of the World Health Organization, and other support from UNICEF and the World Bank, making it possible to formally establish an Expert Review Panel consisting of 15 experts from around the world to guide our research. Immediately following the formation of the Expert Review Panel, the Task Force and the Panel finalized a study protocol designed to answer key questions. These questions cover the strength of evidence; conditions for community-based interventions to be effective and how effective interventions can be realistically scaled up. Thirty reviewers were recruited to carry out systematic reviews according to this protocol. The outcome measures of the review cover the range of the common childhood illnesses in developing countries and associated behaviors. This presentation will cover an outline of the details of the study methodology. The major results will be presented in subsequent presentations by Dr. Henry Perry and Dr. Carl Taylor. Dr. Rudolph Knippenberg of UNICEF will present the implications of the work of the Task Force and the findings of the Expert Review Panel for the work of major donors and policy makers.