Systematic review and metanalysis on community based interventions in tuberculosis care in developing countries.

Background: We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of Lay Health Workers (LHW) in increasing case detection rate and treatment success outcome of Tuberculosis cases

Methods: PUBMED,; Google scholar, African Journal Online (AJOL) and other search engines were systematically searched, for literature from 2000 to 2012 for studies that are either: [randomized/cluster randomized/non randomized or prospective cohort study); assessing lay Health care worker participation in tuberculosis (TB) treatment, using the key words (LHW, TB and treatment). Studies were pooled using a random effect model. Of the thirteen studies that fulfilled the inclusion criteria for systemic review, only five were heterogeneous enough for a meta-analysis.