Contribution of Village Health Teams to the Health Care access in Uganda

Background: THETA Uganda started a community PMTCT program that is integrated in HIV/AIDs prevention and care services using the Village Health Team (VHT) to reach the community with targeted messages in the 10 districts of Uganda. In Uganda, no study has documented the impact of VHTs in the community. We assessed the impact on maternal health services, HIV prevention and other health services. Method: The information before and after the program implementation was compared using Health information management system and Community Health Information System (CHIS). We employed a before and after design and analyzed routinely collected HMIS and CHIS reports data in two different times relative to project implementation. Time1 from 2004 to 2007 and Time2 2008 to 2011 for the 10 districts. We calculated mean quantities in selected variables and determined mean difference. Using paired sample T-test, we tested if the mean difference is statistically significant. Result: A statistically significant increase in mean values from Time 1 to Time 2 was noted for; ANC (P=0.0079), health facility delivery (P=0.0062), Family Planning (P=0.0001), EID (P=0.0000), PNC (P=0.0002), Condom use (P=0.0002), referral from the community to the health centers (P=0.0001) and HCT (P=0.0001). Conclusion: The use of VHTs if well facilitated in program implementation is very crucial in health program Implementation since they are the people on the ground and are first reached by the clients before going to the health facilities. This shows that they contribute much to the health service utilization.