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CARDIOVASCULAR JOURNAL OF AFRICA • Volume 32, No 3, May/June 2021
AFRICA
161
PASCAR and WHF Cardiovascular Diseases Scorecard
project
Lilian Mbau, Jean M Fourie, Wihan Scholtz, Oana Scarlatescu, George Nel,Gladwell Gathecha
Abstract
Data collected for the World Heart Federation’s Scorecard
project regarding the current state of cardiovascular disease
prevention, control and management, along with related non-
communicable diseases in Kenya are presented. Furthermore,
the strengths, threats, weaknesses and priorities identified
from these data are highlighted in concurrence with relat-
ed sections in the accompanying infographic. Information
was collected using open-source data sets from the World
Bank, the World Health Organization, the Institute for
Health Metrics and Evaluation, the International Diabetes
Federation and relevant government publications.
Cardiovasc J Afr
2021;
32
: 161–167
DOI: 10.5830/CVJA-2021-022
Onbehalf of theWorldHeartFederation (WHF), thePan-African
Society of Cardiology (PASCAR) co-ordinated data collection
and reporting for the country-level Cardiovascular Diseases
Scorecard to be used in Africa.
1-4
In 2018, Kenya participated in
the pilot study to develop the scorecard that was used to inform
some of the discussions at the roundtable held together with the
Kenya Cardiac Society (KCS) (OS, pers commun). Therefore,
it was decided to include Kenya’s data within the present
project, which were updated with assistance from the KCS and
Ministry of Health (MoH). In this report, we summarise Kenya’s
strengths, threats, weaknesses and priorities identified from the
collected data, along with needs to be considered in conjunction
with the associated sections in the accompanying infographic.
Data sets that were used included open-source data from the
World Bank, the World Health Organization (WHO), Institute
for Health Metrics and Evaluation, the International Diabetes
Federation (IDF) and government publications.
Part A: Demographics
Kenya is a lower-middle income country, as indicated by the
World Bank (2018), with 72.5% of its people living in rural
areas.
5
In 2015, about 37% of the population was living below
the US$1.9-a-day ratio. Life expectancy at birth in 2019 was
64 and 69 years for men and women, respectively.
5
The general
government health expenditure was 2.1% of the gross domestic
product (GDP), while the country’s GDP per capita was
US$1 816.5 in 2019.
5,6
Part B: National cardiovascular disease
epidemic
The national burden of cardiovascular diseases and
non-communicable disease risk factors
Kenya had a premature (30–70 years old) cardiovascular disease
(CVD) mortality rate of 8%, while the total CVD mortality rate
was 13.8% in 2019.
7
The percentage of disability-adjusted life
years (DALYs) resulting from CVD was 6.3%. The prevalence
of atrial fibrillation (AF) and atrial flutter was 0.1%, while that
of rheumatic heart disease (RHD) was 1.2%.
7
The total RHD
mortality rate was 0.14% of all deaths (Table 1).
7
Tobacco and alcohol
The prevalence of tobacco use in adult men 15 years and older
was 18.8% in 2018, while adult women (2.3%) hardly smoked.
6
However, STEPS (Step-wise survey for NCD risk factors) data
reported in 2015 indicated 23% of Kenyan men and 4.1% of
women aged 18–69 years used tobacco.
8
Data available for the
young smokers, 13–15 years old, revealed 12.8 and 6.7% of boys
and girls, respectively, smoked tobacco in
2013
.
9
The estimated
annual direct cost of tobacco use was not available. The
premature CVD mortality rate attributable to tobacco is 2% of
the total deaths, which is much lower than the global 10%.
10
The
three-year (2016–18) average recorded alcohol consumption
per capita (≥ 15 years) was 1.7 litres, which is lower than most
neighbouring countries, except Ethiopia with 0.9 litres (Table
1).
6
Kenya Cardiac Society, Nairobi, Kenya
Lilian Mbau, MB ChB, MPH, PgDip (Diab)
Pan-African Society of Cardiology, Cape Town, South Africa
Jean M Fourie, MPhil
Wihan Scholtz, MSc,
wihan@medsoc.co.zaGeorge Nel, MSc
World Heart Federation, Geneva, Switzerland
Oana Scarlatescu, MA
Department of Non-Communicable Diseases, Ministry of
Health, Nairobi, Kenya
Gladwell Gathecha, BDS, MSc
Kenya Country Report