Quality of reporting on birth defects in birth certificates: case study from a Brazilian reference hospital

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the coverage, validity and reliability of Brazil's Information System on Live Births (SINASC) for birth defects in a hospital in the city of Campinas (São Paulo State). The study population consisted of 2,823 newborn infants delivered in 2004 at the Women's Integrated Health Care Center (CAISM). A birth defect registry (ECLAMC) was used as the gold-standard. All birth defect cases reported at CAISM in 2004 (92 cases) were selected from SINASC data files. All 168 birth defect cases from the same city and year registered at ECLAMC were also retrieved. An underreporting of 46.8% was observed for all birth defects, and 36.4% when considering only the major birth defects. The ascertained sensitivity and specificity were, respectively, 54.2% and 99.8%. The reliability of three and four-digit ICD-10 coding for birth defects was 0.77 and 0.55 respectively (kappa statistic). These results suggest that information provided by birth certificates in Campinas still presents limitations when seeking to ascertain accurate estimates of the prevalence of birth defects, hence indicating the need for improvements in the SINASC database to enable it to portray birth defect prevalence at birth in this city.

Under-reporting of major birth defects in Northwest Russia: a registry-based study

“…A surveillance system solely based on notifications of births is not advocated [36]. Under-reporting of prevalence like that found in our study hides the extent to which birth defects affect a population.…”

The Importance of Congenital Malformations at Birth

“…Aligned with other authors [19][20][21][22][23][24] , we recognize the importance of including, in the Certificate of Live Birth, a space for registering the occurrence of CM. Despite the advance that this has represented and in spite of the improvement that has been observed in the quality of the information that has been included in the Certificate, the RESUMO Introdução: Os países que superaram as taxas de mortalidade infantil mostram, hoje em dia, a concentração de mortes no período neonatal e, dentro dele, principalmente na primeira semana de vida (após neonatais precoces).…”

“…It is important to recognize, like in the study conducted by LUQUETTI and KOIFMAN, 2009 20 , that the frequency of CM at birth is much higher in hospitals that participate in the ECLAMC, possibly due to their interest and technical qualification targeted at searching for CM.…”

Determinantes Do Baixo Peso Ao Nascer a Partir Das Declarações De Nascidos Vivos

“…A fonte de dados do SINASC é a DNV, documento individualizado que deve ser preenchido para todos os nascimentos vivos ocorridos no país, hospitalares ou domiciliares e permite conhecer o número de nascimentos por município de ocorrência e residência e obter informações sobre as características da ges-tação e do parto, da mãe e do recém-nascido (13). Sobre a qualidade das informações do SINASC, estudos têm demonstrado maior cobertura do SINASC (16,17), maior confiabilidade dos dados (18) e menor incompletude dos campos da DNV (14,18,19), tornando-o uma fonte em potencial a ser utilizado no serviço e na academia.…”

“…Nas demais variáveis estudadas, a incompletude variou de 0,2 a 1,8%, classificação considerada excelente (menor de 5%) (17). Em relação às demais variáveis que constam na DNV -estado civil da mãe, raça/cor da pele, ocupação materna e ramo de atividade, detecção de alguma má formação congênita e/ou anomalia cromossômica -não foram avaliadas devido a incompletudes maior de 20% na DNV, avaliadas como ruins (20).…”