Examining the outcomes of the ‘Health 2 go’ project: A community health worker intervention program, 2016-2020

Objective: The primary objective of the study is to evaluate the outcome of the ‘Health 2 Go’ Program; a community-based health intervention focusing on improving the health of children under five years in selected rural Ghanaian communities.Design: A retrospective cross-sectional study was employed. Settings: Selected hard-to-reach rural communities in the Wawase and BCCDP Sites located in the Eastern and Ashanti Regions of Ghana.Participants: Caregiver of children under five years of age diagnosed with malaria, pneumonia, and diarrhoea by Community Based Agents (CBAs) between November, 2016 and January, 2020. Results: A total of 22,332 home visits (counts of child visits made by the health worker to assess the sick child) were conducted for the period under review. Malaria was the most frequent morbidity at both sites, followed by Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI) and Diarrhoea, with most disease conditions detected between May and September and peaking in October and November. The number of referrals were also positively correlated with the number of malaria cases in children under five.Conclusion: Reported home visits by the CBAs was observed to positively correlate to case detection among children under five years. Malaria is the most frequent diagnosed morbidity among the reported diseases among children. We recommend an increase in the number of home visits conducted with volunteers heightening surveillance among children under five years during the rainy season and immediately thereafter.