ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Health Serv.
Sec. Health Policy and Management
Volume 5 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frhs.2025.1665259
This article is part of the Research TopicIntervention and Implementation for Environmental Health SciencesView all 3 articles
Strengthening Environmental Health Services Delivery through Improving Data Management in South Africa: Insights from Environmental Health Managers
Provisionally accepted
- 1Mangosuthu University of Technology, Umlazi, South Africa
- 2University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: In the delivery of environmental health services (EHS), the data that gets collected provides an opportunity to depict the extent of environmental threats to human health in communities and inform required interventions. In this study, the perspectives and role of environmental health managers in improving data management in the delivery of EHS in municipalities in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa were assessed. Methods: A qualitative phenomenological approach was followed. Data were collected from ten managers via a semi-structured interview guide from February 2024 to April 2024. The transcripts derived from the interviews were analysed via ATLAS.ti version 24.0.0.29576, following which deductive and inductive thematic analysis methods were used. Results: The results revealed various roles and responsibilities that environmental health managers play to improve data management and enable insight-driven decision-making. Furthermore, it was shown that through data-driven insights, EHS delivery can be strengthened to be impactful and enable better health outcomes in communities amid existing institutional and technical challenges. This indicated a need for a holistic approach to review and modernise environmental health data management in South Africa to maximise available opportunities. Conclusion: In this juncture, managers have a duty to drive transformation, apply change management and instil a culture of data use in their institutions for impactful service delivery.
Keywords: data use1, environmental health data management2, environmental healthinformation system3, environmental health services4, municipalities5, Public health6
Received: 14 Jul 2025; Accepted: 21 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Masimula, Senekane and Naicker. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Siphesihle Siyamukela Masimula, siphesihlesiyamukela@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.