Have community health workers increased the delivery of maternal and child healthcare in India?

Background: Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) are community health workers in rural India. This study estimates the proportion of villages with an ASHA and examines the impact of increased ASHA placement on changes in healthcare.

Methods: Information about ASHA placement and maternal and child healthcare was obtained from the District-Level Household Surveys from 2007 to 2008 and 2012 to 2013. In this ecological analysis, the difference in district-level proportions of maternal and child healthcare outcomes between 2012-13 and 2007-08 was regressed onto the difference in ASHA placement between those years.

Results: Within 218 districts from 21 states, the average proportion of villages with an ASHA increased from 39.1 to 76.2%, unmet need for family planning increased from 14.7 to 22.4%, institutional delivery increased from 61.6 to 82.5%, and full immunization coverage decreased from 71.2 to 65.1%. A 1% increase in ASHA placement resulted in 0.05% less unmet need for family planning and 0.22% more full immunization, but no changes in institutional delivery.

Conclusions: ASHAs provide essential services to their community by acting as a conduit to healthcare services, but they may require more training about certain services like promoting institutional delivery to be effective in increasing access to these health services.