Assesment on the competencies of barangay health workers in relation to their sociodemographic characteristics

Abstract

In the Philippines, where the basic political unit is the Barangay, CHWs are known locally as Barangay Health Workers (BHWs), and they play a vital role in the delivery of health services throughout the country. These are people that have undergone training programs under any accredited government and non-government organizations and who render primary health care services in the community after having been accredited to function. Their roles are subdivided as community organizers, health educators, and health care service providers. This study aims to determine the relationship between the sociodemographic characteristics to the competence of BHWs in the First Congressional District of Iloilo. A competence assessment tool was then used to perform a guided interview of the midwives to evaluate the performance of 177 BHWs. Pearson Chi-Square and Fisher’s Exact Test were used to test the relation between variables. Out of the seven municipalities, only Igbaras was lowly competent with an average weighted mean of 3.85. Findings revealed that age (p-value=0.137), educational attainment (p-value=0.302), and length of experience (p-value=0.336)), had no significant relationship with the overall competence of BHWs as well as with the level of competence. Income, however, revealed to be statistically significant given the p-value of 0.020. BHWs with an income of 3000PHP and below is 3.4 (95% CI: 0.097 to 0.874) times more likely to be lowly competent.