Cancer Diagnosis Facility Survey in Southern Africa, 2023

A quantitative cross-sectional survey of 34 public sector health facilities in South Africa and Zimbabwe, conducted from February to September 2023. The dataset reports on the availability of staff, infrastructure, diagnostic services, and referral pathways for early cancer detection. Data were collected as part of the African Awareness of Cancer and Early Diagnosis (AWACAN-ED) programme.

Use Cases

• Benchmarking facility infrastructure for cancer diagnosis based on reported availability of staff and equipment.
• Analyzing disparities in diagnostic service availability between primary and secondary/tertiary care levels.
• Modeling referral pathway efficiency based on data on patient transport systems and communication infrastructure.
• Identifying gaps in clinical protocol availability for specific cancers like cervical, breast, and colorectal.

Strengths

• Provides a baseline from 34 facilities across two countries, including 22 primary care and 12 secondary/tertiary facilities.
• Includes specific population coverage and staff-to-population ratios (e.g., nurse-to-1000-person ratio of 0.46 in primary care).
• Reports concrete percentages for service availability, such as 40% of primary care facilities having adequate communication infrastructure.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data is limited to 34 facilities in four provinces of two countries, representing a specific regional snapshot.

Provenance

Source

figshare, author Tasleem Ras.

Collection Method

Quantitative cross-sectional study conducted via facility survey.

Time Range

Data collected from February to September 2023.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-08 17:46:34; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Four provinces in South Africa and Zimbabwe.