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A spatial database of health facilities managed by the public health sector in sub Saharan Africa

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  • J. Maina
  • P.O. Ouma
  • P.M. Macharia
  • V.A. Alegana
  • B. Mitto
  • I.S. Fall
  • A.M. Noor
  • R.W. Snow
  • E.A. Okiro
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Article number134
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>25/07/2019
<mark>Journal</mark>Scientific Data
Issue number1
Volume6
Number of pages8
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

Health facilities form a central component of health systems, providing curative and preventative services and structured to allow referral through a pyramid of increasingly complex service provision. Access to health care is a complex and multidimensional concept, however, in its most narrow sense, it refers to geographic availability. Linking health facilities to populations has been a traditional per capita index of heath care coverage, however, with locations of health facilities and higher resolution population data, Geographic Information Systems allow for a more refined metric of health access, define geographic inequalities in service provision and inform planning. Maximizing the value of spatial heath access requires a complete census of providers and their locations. To-date there has not been a single, geo-referenced and comprehensive public health facility database for sub-Saharan Africa. We have assembled national master health facility lists from a variety of government and non-government sources from 50 countries and islands in sub Saharan Africa and used multiple geocoding methods to provide a comprehensive spatial inventory of 98,745 public health facilities.