A rapid assessment of a community health worker pilot programme to improve the management of hypertension and diabetes in Emfuleni sub-district of Gauteng Province, South Africa

Figures & data

Table 1. Description of the sample and the comparison group

	Kgatelopele patients	Clinic patients
Number of patients	56	168
Female (n)	69.6 (39)	69.9 (117)
Mean age (range)	75 (54–96)	69 (51–92)
Patients with co-morbidities (n)	39.3 (22)	25.0 (42)
Months on treatment recorded in file (range)*	9 (1–20)	6 (2–13)
Months on Kgatelopele programme	8 (2–18)	N/A

*When treatment was interrupted or the patient's record could not be found, a new record was started. Hence, the relatively short period on treatment is unlikely to be accurate.

Table 2. Percentage of patients with controlled hypertension and diabetes at health checks in the past year in the programme and control groups (n)

	Hypertension patients			Diabetes patients			BP control for patients with both conditions
Percentage of health checks in the previous year at which the condition was controlled	Kgatelopele	Clinic	P	Kgatelopele	Clinic	P	Kgatelopele	Clinic	P
0–40	78.6 (44)	86.9 (146)	0.13	90.9 (20)	73.8 (31)	0.11	72.7 (16)	95.2 (40)	0.01
41–100	21.4 (12)	13.1 (22)		9.1 (2)	26.2 (11)		27.3 (6)	4.8 (2)
Total	100% (56)	100% (168)		100% (22)	100% (42)		100 (22)	100 (42)

Health checks may have occurred either on a home visit or a 6-monthly clinic review.