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BackgroundCorrect treatment of potentially life-threatening illnesses (PLTIs) in children under 5 years, such as malaria, pneumonia, and diarrhea, can substantially reduce mortality. The Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) strategy has been shown to improve treatment of child illnesses, but multiple studies have shown that gaps in health worker performance remain after training. To better understand factors related to health worker performance, we analyzed 9,330 patient consultations in Benin from 2001–2002, after training one of the first cohorts of 32 health workers in IMCI.MethodsWith data abstracted from patient registers specially designed for IMCI-trained health workers, we examined associations between health facility-, health worker-, and patient-level factors and 10 case-management outcomes for PLTIs.ResultsAltogether, 63.6 % of children received treatment for all their PLTIs in accordance with IMCI guidelines, and 77.8 % received life-saving treatment (i.e., clinically effective treatment, even if not exactly in accordance with IMCI guidelines). Performance of individual health workers varied greatly, from 15–88 % of patients treated correctly, on average. Multivariate regression analyses identified several factors that might have influenced case-management quality, many outside a manager’s direct control. Younger health workers significantly outperformed older ones, and infants received better care than older children. Children with danger signs, those with more complex illnesses, and those with anemia received worse care. Health worker supervision was associated with improved performance for some outcomes.ConclusionsA variety of factors, some outside the direct control of program managers, can influence health worker practices. An understanding of these influences can help inform the development of strategies to improve performance.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12913-015-0910-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Abstractobjective Training health workers to use Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) guidelines can improve care for ill children in outpatient settings in developing countries. However, even after IMCI training, important performance gaps exist. One potential reason is that the effect of training can rapidly wane. Our aim was to determine if the performance of IMCI-trained health workers deteriorated over 3 years.methods We studied two departments in Benin. First, we performed a record review of 32 IMCItrained health workers during the first year of IMCI implementation (2001)(2002). Second, we analysed data from cross-sectional health facility surveys from 2001 to 2004 that represented the entire study area. Primary outcomes were the proportion of children under 5 years old with potentially lifethreatening illnesses who received either recommended or adequate treatment, and among all children, an index of overall guideline adherence. Secondary outcomes reflected the treatment of individual diseases. Outcomes were calculated monthly, and time trends were evaluated with regression modelling.results The record review included 9393 consultations, and the surveys included 411 consultations performed by 105 health workers. For both data sources, performance trends were essentially flat for nearly all outcomes. Absolute levels of performance revealed substantial performance gaps.conclusions We found no evidence that performance declined over 3 years after IMCI training. However, important performance gaps found immediately after IMCI training persisted and should be addressed.