Scaling Task-Sharing: mHealth for NCD Care in Africa

The July 24, 2026 PLOS Global Public Health scoping review found that “digital health, particularly mHealth, supports NPHWs in task-sharing for NCD prevention and management in Africa, ” while also noting constraints on scale-up (PLOS Global Public Health).

• The authors screened 4, 857 citations and included 15 studies from eight African countries as of the search cutoff on August 3, 2025, according to Mhlanga et al. (2026).
• mHealth was the single most common technology used in the included studies, appearing in 46.7% (7/15) of studies, according to Mhlanga et al. (2026).
• South Africa contributed the largest share of included studies, 26.7% (4/15), as reported in Mhlanga et al. (2026).
• The review reported both positive patient outcomes in some mental health treatment studies and neutral effects for several prevention outcomes, per Mhlanga et al. (2026).
• Chibanda et al. (as cited in Mhlanga et al., 2026) described using "up to six SMSs and phone calls" to support psychosocial interventions.

Answer: The scoping review mapped how digital health is used by non-physician health workers (NPHWs) for task-sharing in NCD care in Africa and identified gaps for scale-up.

According to Mhlanga et al. (2026) in PLOS Global Public Health, the authors followed a Joanna Briggs Institute scoping review method and searched PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar between April 7, 2025 and August 3, 2025.

According to Mhlanga et al. (2026), the database search returned 4, 857 citations, after duplicates and screening 15 studies from eight countries met inclusion criteria, with the studies published between 2014 and August 2025.

According to Mhlanga et al. (2026), community health workers were the most common NPHW users (46.7%; 7/15) and mHealth (SMS, smartphone apps, decision-support tools) was the dominant technology across included studies.

Answer: Researchers and program leads should treat the PLOS findings as a mapping of promise plus critical context requirements, not as turnkey evidence for scale.

According to Mhlanga et al. (2026) in PLOS Global Public Health, mHealth was used for four main functions (prevention, screening, treatment delivery and supervision) so program design should explicitly specify which function is primary.

According to Mhlanga et al. (2026), where effectiveness was evaluated (4 studies), mental health task-sharing using mHealth showed positive patient symptom changes in 2 studies, while prevention trials (e.g., Lifestyle Africa) reported neutral biomarker changes, implying different evidence strengths by use case.

According to Mhlanga et al. (2026), common implementation barriers included low digital literacy, intermittent electricity and poor connectivity, therefore researchers should embed feasibility, training and infrastructure assessment into early-stage pilots.

The PLOS Global Public Health scoping review (published July 24, 2026) shows that mHealth is the dominant digital health approach used to support task-sharing for NCDs in Africa, but the evidence base is small (15 studies) and implementation barriers persist (Mhlanga et al., 2026).

Program teams and researchers should combine the review’s findings with local qualitative data to design feasible tools that match CHW skills and infrastructure conditions, as recommended by Mhlanga et al. (2026).

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