Task-sharing with community health workers to treat hypertension: a scoping review

Many studies have implemented and evaluated task-sharing interventions with community health workers (CHWs) to manage hypertension. To identify gaps in research, we conducted a scoping review. We searched original articles published in PubMed and EMBASE between 2010 and 2022 and found 122 articles meeting our inclusion criteria. Only seven articles were from low-income countries (LICs), most of which were qualitative studies or mixed methods studies. In the identified 122 articles, CHWs often performed health education (61.3%) and measured blood pressure (60.4%). Whereas CHWs carried out pharmacological treatment in only three studies. Participant homes (75.0%) were the most common setting for receiving interventions. Our study identified specific needs for future research, specifically, studies in LICs that are experimental in design and that collect relevant qualitative information, and studies in which CHWs do advanced task. In addition, publications of CHW studies should provide a more comprehensive list of intervention features.