mHealth is the use of mobile and wireless devices to improve health outcomes, healthcare services, and health research. An estimated 68% of the world’s population own mobile phones, with Kenya having approximately 80% of mobile phone penetration. This makes it feasible to accelerate the uptake of mHealth interventions to improve health services delivery. While some evidence has shown how various forms of mHealth interventions have been used to transform health services, health outcomes, and health research in Kenya and globally, many remain largely anecdotal or undocumented. This paper examines the various forms of mHealth interventions that have been incorporated into Kenya’s health infrastructure, and their effectiveness in improving health services delivery in Kenya. A systematic review of peer-reviewed articles, policy briefs, and credible materials published on mHealth have shown that mHealth has succeeded in the health infrastructure such as in collecting and transferring health and patient data, remote diagnosis, treatment, and patient follow-up. The paper also examines the barriers around the uptake of mHealth interventions and recommends how these interventions can be integrated into Kenya’s health infrastructure. Even though there is every reason to believe that mHealth can allow limited resource settings to “leapfrog” over more advanced settings in using mobile technologies to improve health services delivery, mHealth is not a panacea. There are limited will and resources to scale up and integrate mHealth into the health infrastructure with attempted integration met with a negative attitude from the strained health workforce who still view mHealth as additional work, among other challenges. Despite the challenges, there may be an opportunity for Kenya’s Government to leverage mobile and wireless devices to improve the delivery of health services to areas that were previously unreachable, thereby fast-tracking its commitment to achieving Universal Health Coverage.

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Introduction: In the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the Ministry of Health in Kenya putting in place stringent COVID-19 guidelines to curb the spread of this disease including lockdowns and restrictions to public gatherings disrupting the normal communications, activities and engagements that the young people usually had prior to the pandemic. The COVID-19 crisis also led to an economic downturn further negatively affecting young people. This purpose of this study was to therefore analyze the effect of COVID-19 crisis on mental health among young people between the ages of 18-35 years in Kenya. Methods: Cross-sectional research was carried out in Nairobi Kenya where youth aged 18 to 35 years responded to an online survey. A total of 272 participants completed the questionnaire which included a biodata section and a section aimed at measuring depression using the standardized self-reporting Depression Analysis Tool- PHQ9 and measure resilience using the standardized The Brief Resilience Scale (BRS) and Brief Resilient Coping Scale (BRCS). Results: The findings from the study indicated that COVID-19 contributed to the rising mental health challenges in young people during the pandemic period. In terms of depression, the study found out that that up to 65.9% of the respondents reported having severe to mild depression with the male having more reported depression than their female counterparts. The study also showed that about 61.6% of participants had normal resilience but a significant 29.5% had low resilience in coping with the disrupted state caused by the COVID -19 crisis. The research also found out that just over half of the young people (55.3%) were able to cope with the existing challenges from the pandemic. Conclusions and recommendations: The study demonstrated a strong correlation between the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis and its effect on mental health of young people. Therefore, the study recommends the development, strengthening and implementation of a mental health preparedness and response strategy for future pandemics and crisis situations.

Background: Health outcomes are closely influenced by health literacy levels. In most cases, lower health literacy levels have been found to be related to higher prevalence and incidence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs)-including cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and other chronic respiratory diseases. Despite this wealth of knowledge on the relationship between literacy levels and NCDs, most previous studies have been on the incidence and the prevalence of NCDs.Aims: This study therefore sought to assess the factors influencing non-communicable diseases literacy levels, Vihiga County (Kenya). Methodology:The study used a qualitative cross-sectional study design to collect data through though questionnaires and interview guides administered through focused group discussions and key informant interviews. A sample size of 55 respondents was used in this study-mostly the IPAB project (Improving Priority and Budget Allocation to NCDs in Vihiga County) beneficiaries. The data collected from this study was coded using Microsoft excel version 25 and analyzed using statistical packages for social sciences (SPSS version 25) and inductive data analysis (IDA) for the qualitative data collected was analyzed through traditional significance test. Results:The study reported that community health programs and initiatives on NCDs, patient support groups, culture and misinformation influence NCD literacy levels. The study findings indicate that culture and misinformation, patient support groups, and community health programmes and initiatives are three key components that need to be considered when improving NCDs literacy levels. Conclusion:The study also concludes that IPAB project helped boost the resident's knowledge and understanding of NCDs. The findings of this study offer critical insights to Vihiga County Government to tailor their NCDs advocacy programs to fit local context thereby enhancing the knowledge and understanding on NCDs.