How do health extension workers in Ethiopia allocate their time?

Table 2 Health extension worker (HEW) attributes, working patterns, and kebeles

	Oromia		SNNP		All
	n = 57		n = 73		n = 130
HEW Attributes	n	%	n	%	n	%
Highest level of education
High school and 1 year of technical training	52	91%	66	90%	118	91%
High school and 2+ years of technical training	5	9%	7	9%	12	9%
Lives in the kebele in which work	18	32%	27	37%	45	35%
	Median	IQR	Median	IQR	Median	IQR
Age of HEW	24	(23–25)	25	(23–27)	24	(23–26)
Years has been an HEW	5	(4–6)	6	(5–7)	5	(5–6)
Minutes to walk from home to health post^a	60	(28–90)	40	(25–75)	50	(25–90)
Working Patterns
In a normal week (Monday–Friday), days spent working	Median	IQR	Median	IQR	Median	IQR
in the community	2	(2–3)	2	(2–2)	2	(2–3)
at the health post	2	(2–3)	3	(2–3)	3	(2–3)
In past 4 weeks, HEWs who have worked on	n	%	n	%	n	%
Saturday or Sunday	36	63%	31	42%	67	52%
Saturday	21	37%	31	42%	52	40%
Sunday	27	47%	23	32%	50	38%
If worked at a weekend in past 4 weeks, days worked (out of 8 days)	2	(1–2)	2	(2–2)	2	(1–2)
Kebeles and Health Posts	n = 33		n = 36		n = 69
	Median	IQR	Median	IQR	Median	IQR
Development team leaders and community health volunteers active^b	28	(25–35)	22.5	(12–20)	26	(20–31)
Model households active	110	(60–350)	337	(120–602)	187.5	(87–528)
Model households being trained	60	(50–150)	201	(108–330)	96	(58–230)
Estimated clients attending the health post per week	70	(30–90)	85	(47–200)	75	(35–125)

^aMissing 11 from Oromia; ^bFemale community health volunteers were recruited under the COMBINE trial to provide pregnancy and postnatal home visits in their communities. IQR, Interquartile range; SNNP, Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples.

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