Effectiveness of and factors related to possession of a mother and child health handbook: an analysis using propensity score matching.

Background: Mother and Child Health handbooks (MCH handbooks) serve as useful health education tools for mothers and sources of information that allow health care professionals to understand patient status. Therefore, it is necessary to clarify the effectiveness of and identify the factors related to possession of an MCH handbook among parents in rural Western Kenya using propensity score matching (PSM).

Methods: A community-based cross-sectional survey using a structured questionnaire was conducted in rural western Kenya from August to September, 2011.

Individual and contextual factors associated with community health workers' performance in Nyanza Province, Kenya: a multilevel analysis.

Background: Several African and South Asian countries are currently investing in new cadres of community health workers (CHWs) as a major part of strategies aimed at reaching the Millennium Development Goals. However, one review concluded that community health workers did not consistently provide services likely to have substantial effects on health and that quality was usually poor. The objective of this research was to assess the CHWs' performance in Western Kenya and describe determinants of that performance using a multilevel analysis of the two levels, individual and supervisor/community.