Task sharing and task shifting: Optimizing the primary health care workforce for improved delivery of noncommunicable disease services in Kenya

Over one third of all deaths in Kenya in 2019 were attributed to NCDs (Vos et al., 2020). The four major NCDs – CVDs, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases – accounted for 57% of these deaths. Furthermore, the direct and indirect economic impact of NCDs is significant- Kenya is said to have lost Ksh 230 billion or 3.4% of its gross domestic product in 2016 from rising NCD-related medical costs and indirect productivity losses. At the household level, an estimated decrease of 28.6% in income due to NCDs was reported in 2007 (Mwai & Muriithi, 2016; Mensah et al., 2020). Therefore, preventing and managing NCDs are significant public health and economic priorities.