ArticleThe Lancet. Global health2022
The COVID-19 pandemic and disruptions to essential health services in Kenya: a retrospective time-series analysis.
Article in The Lancet. Global health, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 48 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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48 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 72 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review of infectious disease outbreaks and violence against women and girls: changes in magnitude, mechanisms and lessons for the future.BMJ global health · 2026Pooled it
- Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on non-communicable diseases care and service deliveries in Sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review.BMC health services research · 2025Pooled it
- Impact of COVID-19 on Maternal Health Service Uptake and Perinatal Outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Pooled it
- Changes in the global hospitalisation burden of respiratory syncytial virus in young children during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic analysis.The Lancet. Infectious diseases · 2024Pooled it
- The impact of COVID-19 on non-communicable disease patients in sub-Saharan African countries: A systematic review.PloS one · 2024Pooled it
- Implementation evaluation of the COVID-19 vaccination: Speed, equity and mortality trends.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2026Article
- Diabetes Burden in the Middle East and North Africa Region, 1990-2023: An Ecological Time-Trend Analysis of GBD Estimates.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2026Article
- Colorectal cancer incidence before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a non-linear interrupted time-series analysis.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- The population-level impact of COVID-19 on maternal healthcare utilization: evidence from the 2022 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey.International health · 2026Article
- Geospatial analysis of COVID-19 vaccine access in Kenya: the interplay of travel time, perceived availability, and vaccine uptake.Journal of global health · 2026Article
- "If they were telling us to go, we will go": factors associated with effective postnatal care coverage before and after discharge - a mixed-methods study in rural western Kenya.BMJ global health · 2026Article
- Participation of miRNA-23a-3p in Pulmonary Tuberculosis Through Macrophages via the JAK-STAT Pathway.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · 2026Article
- Health service responses and help-seeking for women experiencing violence during outbreaks in low- and middle-income settings: A scoping review.PLOS global public health · 2026Article
- Maintaining essential health services during COVID-19: cross-country lessons of health system resilience from Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.BMJ global health · 2025Article
- Routine immunisation coverage in the context of seasonal influenza vaccine introduction for children in Nakuru and Mombasa counties in Kenya, 2019-21: an observational study.The Lancet. Global health · 2025Observational
- Establishing the effect of COVID-19 lockdown policy on the utilization of facility-based delivery in Kenya: a multi-method study.BMC health services research · 2025Article
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- Food classifications provide an approximate packaging indicator to support monitoring of mismanaged plastic waste.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Socioeconomic disparities in child malnutrition: trends, determinants, and policy implications from the Kenya demographic and health survey (2014 - 2022).BMC public health · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
14 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPublic health emergencies can disrupt the provision of and access to essential health-care services, exacerbating health crises. We aimed to assess the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on essential health-care services in Kenya.
methodsUsing county-level data routinely collected from the health information system from health facilities across the country, we used a robust mixed-effect model to examine changes in 17 indicators of essential health services across four periods: the pre-pandemic period (from January, 2018 to February, 2020), two pandemic periods (from March to November 2020, and February to October, 2021), and the period during the COVID-19-associated health-care workers' strike (from December, 2020 to January, 2021).
findingsIn the pre-pandemic period, we observed a positive trend for multiple indicators. The onset of the pandemic was associated with statistically significant decreases in multiple indicators, including outpatient visits (28·7%; 95% CI 16·0-43·5%), cervical cancer screening (49·8%; 20·6-57·9%), number of HIV tests conducted (45·3%; 23·9-63·0%), patients tested for malaria (31·9%; 16·7-46·7%), number of notified tuberculosis cases (26·6%; 14·7-45·1%), hypertension cases (10·4%; 6·0-39·4%), vitamin A supplements (8·7%; 7·9-10·5%), and three doses of the diphtheria, tetanus toxoid, and pertussis vaccine administered (0·9%; 0·5-1·3%). Pneumonia cases reduced by 50·6% (31·3-67·3%), diarrhoea by 39·7% (24·8-62·7%), and children attending welfare clinics by 39·6% (23·5-47·1%). Cases of sexual violence increased by 8·0% (4·3-25·0%). Skilled deliveries, antenatal care, people with HIV infection newly started on antiretroviral therapy, confirmed cases of malaria, and diabetes cases detected were not significantly affected negatively. Although most of the health indicators began to recover during the pandemic, the health-care workers' strike resulted in nearly all indicators falling to numbers lower than those observed at the onset or during the pre-strike pandemic period.
interpretationThe COVID-19 pandemic and the associated health-care workers' strike in Kenya have been associated with a substantial disruption of essential health services, with the use of outpatient visits, screening and diagnostic services, and child immunisation adversely affected. Efforts to maintain the provision of these essential health services during a health-care crisis should target the susceptible services to prevent the exacerbation of associated disease burdens during such health crises.
fundingBill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
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