Assessing community health governance for evidence-informed decision-making: a cross-sectional study across nine districts of India
International Journal of Health Governance
ISSN: 2059-4631
Article publication date: 24 December 2021
Issue publication date: 11 February 2022
Abstract
Purpose
The authors intend to assess the village health sanitation and nutrition committees (VHSNC) on six parameters, including their formation, composition, meeting frequencies, activities, supervisory mechanisms and funds receipt and expenditures across nine districts of the three states of India.
Design/methodology/approach
The cross-sectional study, conducted in the states of Uttar Pradesh (five districts), Odisha (two districts) and Rajasthan (two districts), used a quantitative research design. The community health workers of 140 VHSNCs were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. The details about the funds' receipt and expenditures were verified from the VHSNC records (cashbook). Additionally, the authors asked about the role of health workers in the VHSNC meetings, and the issues and challenges faced.
Findings
The average number of members in VHSNCs varied from 10 in Odisha to 15 in Rajasthan. Activities were regularly organized in Rajasthan and Odisha (one per month) compared to Uttar Pradesh (one every alternate month). Most commonly, health promotion activities, cleanliness drives, community monitoring and facilitation of service providers were done by VHSNCs. Funds were received regularly in Odisha compared to Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Funds were received late and less compared to the demands or needs of VHSNCs.
Research limitations/implications
This comprehensive analysis of VHSNCs' functioning in the selected study areas sheds light on the gaps in many components, including the untimely and inadequate receipt of funds, poor documentation of expenditures and involvement of VHSNC heads and inadequate supportive supervision.
Originality/value
VHSNCs assessment has been done for improving community health governance.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the participants of this study for contributing their time. In addition, the authors are grateful for the assistance of field investigators for their help with data collections.Funding: The present study is a part of implementation science research funded under Corporate Social Responsibility.Ethics approval and consent to participate: The study protocol was approved by the MAMTA Ethical Review Board (MERB). The MERB looks after the study protocols submitted by MAMTA Health Institute for Mother and Child. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants for the use of their data for research.Consent for publication: Not applicable.Availability of data and materials: The data sets used and/or analyzed in the present study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.Funding: This project of implementation science was granted funding under the Corporate Social Responsibility from Nestlé India. The funders had no role in the study design, intervention framework, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.Authors' contributions: SS and SR conceived and designed the study. FA and RKS coordinated with the researchers for data collection and cleaned the data. SS and SR analyzed the data. SS drafted the manuscript. SM, SR, RKS and FA reviewed/consulted the manuscript; SS contributed to the critical revision of the manuscript. All authors commented on drafts and read and approved the final manuscript.
Citation
Sharma, S., Rawat, S., Akhtar, F., Singh, R.K. and Mehra, S. (2022), "Assessing community health governance for evidence-informed decision-making: a cross-sectional study across nine districts of India", International Journal of Health Governance, Vol. 27 No. 1, pp. 8-20. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJHG-05-2021-0051
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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