Effect of Knowledge of Frontline Health Workers on Essential Newborn Healthcare: Evidence from Rural India

Praween Kumar Agrawal, Urban Health Resource Centre (UHRC)
Emma K. Williams, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Amanda Rosecrans, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Abdullah M. Baqui, Johns Hopkins University

Paper examined the effect of knowledge level of frontline health workers on adherence of newborn care-seeking practices at household level by exploring recently conducted evaluation research data. 17,248 mothers residing in 59,278 households were interviewed to collect detailed information on maternal and newborn health. Data were also collected from catchment area of existing service providers (86 ANMs and 302 Anganwadi workers (AWW) to know their knowledge, roles, and responsibilities and linked to the mothers. After controlling for socioeconomic and demographic factors, the knowledge level of ANMs/AWWs emerged as most significant factor in practicing essential newborn care. Likelihood of initiation of breastfeeding in first day of life (OR=2.22,95%CI:1.82-2.70) and thermal care in first 6 hours (OR=2.44,95%,CI:1.89-3.16) was more than twice among the mothers visited by ANMs having better knowledge than having poor knowledge. Improving newborn health status in rural India may be possible by improving the knowledge of frontline health workers.