Cancer Diagnostic Service Availability in Southern African Health Facilities, 2023
by Tasleem Ras·Updated 1mo ago
5.5 KB1files
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Description
A quantitative cross-sectional study of 34 public health facilities in South Africa and Zimbabwe, conducted from February to September 2023. The dataset, created by Tasleem Ras, captures availability of staff, infrastructure, diagnostic services, and referral pathways for early cancer detection. It includes population catchment figures and staff-to-population ratios for primary, secondary, and tertiary care levels.
Use Cases
Compare diagnostic service availability between primary and secondary/tertiary facilities based on metrics like cervical smear availability and clinical protocol presence.
Analyze healthcare workforce density using the reported nurse-to-1000-person and doctor-to-1000-person ratios for different facility levels.
Assess infrastructure gaps for cancer referral pathways based on data points for communication infrastructure and patient transport systems.
Identify geographic disparities in service provision, such as the reported absence of mammography at any Zimbabwean facilities.
Strengths
Includes specific population catchment figures: 1,068,177 for primary care and 18,750,387 for secondary/tertiary facilities.
Provides concrete staff-to-population ratios (e.g., 0.46 nurses per 1000 people in primary care).
Reports comparative percentages for service availability (e.g., 40% vs 42% for communication infrastructure).
Describes a clearly defined study scope across 34 facilities in two countries over an 8-month period.
Limitations
Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
The dataset is very small at 5.5 KB, indicating limited scope.
Provenance
Source
figshare, author Tasleem Ras.
Collection Method
Quantitative cross-sectional study conducted as part of the African Awareness of Cancer and Early Diagnosis (AWACAN-ED) programme.
Time Range
Data collected from February to September 2023.
Freshness
Last updated 2026-05-08 17:46:40; freshness should be verified.