How the health checks work
A short guide to using the checks well, keeping your answers private, and knowing what to do with your result.
Choose where to start
Feeling unwell? Use the Symptom guide: tell it how you feel and it talks with you, one question at a time, following what you say, while a medical knowledge base of over a thousand conditions weighs what could fit (you can watch it think). At the end it tells you what fits, whom to see and what to read. Troubled in life, mind or relationships? Use Talk it through. Have a test report? My test results explained reads blood, urine, ECG, breathing and other reports. Want the big picture? Take the Whole-person check, or pick from the list of checks.
Keep your own private record
With a free account, tick "Save to my health record" on any result. My health record then shows your scorecard, how each check changes over time, what has not been looked at, your goals (with a gentle weekly reminder), your medical history, and a PDF summary to take to your doctor. Only you can see it, and you can delete it all at any time.
Answer honestly, for the time asked
Every check is a short conversation: Sozo asks one question at a time, and you can tap an answer or write it in your own words ("most days", "kila siku", "72 kilos"). The questions that are scored keep their published wording, so your result means what it should. Prefer to see everything at once? Each check has "See all the questions at once". Most checks ask about the last 2 weeks or the last month. Answer for that time, not just today. There are no right or wrong answers, and nobody sees your answers on the screen but you.
Measure simply
Some checks need a bathroom scale, a tape measure, a chair and a watch, or blood-pressure readings from a pharmacy or home cuff. Measure in the morning, in light clothes. Nothing needs blood, needles or a laboratory.
Read your result, then act
Every result says what it means and what to do now, in four steps: Looks good (keep going), Worth working on (change a habit, check again in a month), See a health worker (within a week or two), and Act today (get help now).
Check again
Health changes. Repeat a check after a month of working on it, or every 6 to 12 months when all is well, and see your progress.
Results on screen
Checks of the body, food, sleep, fitness and warning signs show your result on the page at once. Nothing about you is kept: we only count that the check was used, to know which checks help people most.
Private results
Checks of the mind, relationships, safety at home, alcohol and drugs, sexual health, children's development and spiritual life are private. For now their result shows on your screen only, and nothing is kept. Soon they will be emailed to you instead, and our care team will be able to follow up.
What these checks are, and are not
- They are screens: they show where to pay attention. They are not a diagnosis. Only a health worker who examines you can diagnose.
- They use published questionnaires (named on each check) and public health guidance from WHO, the CDC and Kenya's Ministry of Health, written in plain words.
- Do not stop or change any medicine because of a result. Talk to your health worker first.
- Children's checks are answered by a parent or carer.
- When it is switched on, the Symptom guide's questions are written by a free AI service (Google Gemini or Groq). You are asked first, and you can continue without it. Only the words you type in that conversation are sent, never your name, email or account, so please do not type names. The AI never decides alone: our knowledge base keeps the score and our own safety rules read every message for danger signs.
- "Talk it through" may look up unfamiliar words you write on MedlinePlus (the free health library of the U.S. National Library of Medicine) to choose its questions. It never sends your name, email or whole message.
Our recommendations
- Start with the Whole-person check once a year, and follow up the area that scores lowest.
- Know your numbers: blood pressure every year from 18, blood sugar from 35, and the check-ups in My check-up planner.
- Mind and body belong together: low mood shows in sleep, appetite and pain; stress shows in blood pressure. If one check is low, take the one next to it.
- Live the eight laws of health (NEWSTART): good food, exercise, water, sunlight, temperance, fresh air, rest (including the Sabbath) and trust in God. Small, steady changes last.
- Do not carry it alone. Share your result with someone you trust, a health worker, or our care team.
- Emergency: 999 or 112 (free)
- Kenya Red Cross: 1199 (free)
- Befrienders Kenya (emotional support): +254 722 178 177
- Childline Kenya (children at risk): 116 (free)
- Gender-based violence helpline: 1195 (free)