June 14, 2023

New study aims to identify barriers to implementing national sickle cell disease management guidelines in Kenya

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a multi-system, life-threatening condition characterized by chronic anemia, frequent episodes of painful vaso-occlusive crises, organ infarction and eventually widespread organ damage. Over 80% of the 240,000 children born with SCD in sub-Sahara Africa each year die before their fifth birthday. Despite the existence of evidence-informed guidelines around the use of disease modifying interventions necessary for the management of SCD, guideline implementation in the region is suboptimal leading to preventable morbidity and mortality.

Alison Wiyeh (PhD Candidate in Epidemiology), Dr. Patricia Pavlinac (Assistant Professor in Global Health; Adjunct Associate Professor in Epidemiology), and Dr. Arjee Restar (Assistant Professor in Epidemiology and Health Systems and Population Health), recently received a Population Health Initiative’s Tier 1 Pilot Research grant for their study entitled “An Assessment of Caregiver and Provider Level Barriers to the Implementation of the Kenyan National Sickle Cell Disease Clinical Guidelines”. This mixed methods study, embedded in Alison’s PhD Dissertation project, will identify and unpack caregiver and provider level factors that act as barriers to the implementation of the national sickle cell disease management guidelines in Kenya.

We look forward to sharing outcomes from this new project.