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A household cluster survey was conducted among caregivers of 5643 children at baseline and of 5259 children at endline.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>In the intervention districts, treatments provided by community health volunteers increased from 0 to 14.3% for all three conditions combined (<jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic>\u00a0&lt;\u00a00.001). Care seeking from an appropriate provider was not statistically significant (OR\u00a0=\u00a01.50, 95% CI: 0.88\u20132.54) between intervention and comparison districts and coverage of appropriate treatment increased in both study groups for all three illnesses. However, the presence of community health volunteers was associated with a 105% increase in appropriate treatment for pneumonia (OR\u00a0=\u00a02.05, 95% CI: 1.22\u20133.42) and a 55% drop in traditional treatment for diarrhoea (OR\u00a0=\u00a00.45, 95% CI: 0.21\u20130.96). Community health volunteers were also associated with fewer facility treatments for malaria (OR\u00a0=\u00a00.21, 95% CI: 0.07\u20130.62).<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title><jats:p>After implementing free care, coverage for treatment for all three illnesses in both study groups improved. Deployment of community health volunteers was associated with a reduced treatment burden at facilities and less reliance on traditional treatments.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1111\/tmi.12383","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2014,9,22]],"date-time":"2014-09-22T06:49:57Z","timestamp":1411368597000},"page":"1466-1476","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":32,"title":["Influence of community health volunteers on care seeking and treatment coverage for common childhood illnesses in the context of free health care in rural <scp>S<\/scp>ierra <scp>L<\/scp>eone"],"prefix":"10.1111","volume":"19","author":[{"given":"Aisha I.","family":"Yansaneh","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of International Health Bloomberg School of Public Health Johns Hopkins University Baltimore MD USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lawrence H.","family":"Moulton","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of International Health Bloomberg School of Public Health Johns Hopkins University Baltimore MD USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Asha S.","family":"George","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of International Health Bloomberg School of Public Health Johns Hopkins University Baltimore MD USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sowmya R.","family":"Rao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Quantitative Health Sciences University of Massachusetts Medical School Worcester MA USA"},{"name":"Center for Healthcare Organization and Implementation Research Bedford VA Medical Center Bedford VA USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ngozi","family":"Kennedy","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Health Section Child Survival Division UNICEF Sierra Leone Freetown Sierra Leone"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Peter","family":"Bangura","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Statistics Sierra Leone Freetown Sierra Leone"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"William R.","family":"Brieger","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of International Health Bloomberg School of Public Health Johns Hopkins University Baltimore MD USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Augustin","family":"Kabano","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Health Section Child Survival Division UNICEF Sierra Leone Freetown Sierra Leone"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Theresa","family":"Diaz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Knowledge Management and Implementation Research Unit UNICEF New York NY USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"311","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2014,9,22]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_2_8_2_1","volume-title":"At a Crossroads: Sierra Leone's Free Health Care Policy","author":"Amnesty International","year":"2011"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_3_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.actatropica.2013.03.010"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_4_1","unstructured":"BradyE&SharkeyA(2013)Health for the Poorest Quintile (HPQ) and Health for the Poorest Populations (HPP) projects: Sierra Leone qualitative research report.UNICEF."},{"key":"e_1_2_8_5_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0027997"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_6_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pmed.1001421"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_7_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1186\/1475-2875-10-158"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_8_1","unstructured":"CHERG(2013)Child causes of death annual estimates by country 2000\u20132010.http:\/\/www.cherg.org\/publications\/Country-level-child-deaths-2000-2010.xlsx(accessed September 20 2013)."},{"key":"e_1_2_8_9_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1186\/1478-4491-9-27"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_10_1","first-page":"1","volume-title":"A Guide for Program Managers","author":"Core Group, Save the Children, BASICS, MCHIP","year":"2010"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_11_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2471\/BLT.11.093989"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_12_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1186\/1471-2458-13-157"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_13_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(07)60325-0"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_14_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.4269\/ajtmh.2012.11-0733"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_15_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1186\/1475-2875-11-282"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_16_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2105\/AJPH.91.10.1617"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_17_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1186\/1475-2875-11-248"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_18_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1186\/1478-4491-11-54"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_19_1","volume-title":"Policy Brief: Community Health Workers: What Do We Know About Them? 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