Non-communicable diseases surveillance: overview of magnitude and determinants in Kenya from STEPwise approach survey of 2015

Disease surveillance is a scientifically and legally established hallmark of population health whose goal is systematically collecting, interpreting and disseminating data to target and monitor interventions to reduce disease morbidity and mortality [1–5]. However, data is often either lacking or of low quality especially in low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs). For example, more than half of global deaths for 2015 did not have an established cause [6]. The Global Burden of Disease (GBD), the largest descriptive epidemiological study, show low rates of data quality for most LMICs during 1980–2016 [7]. Despite substantial improvements in data quality and cause of death establishment [8, 9], of over 50 health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) indicators identified in the World Health Statistics 2017 report, data is adequate for monitoring 36 indicators [10].