Arkhangelsk County Birth Registry as an Inportant Source of Information for Research and Healthcare

Abstract

The article presents a short review of already established birth registries worldwide and their value for public health and perinatal medicine. Implementation of Arkhangelsk County Birth Registry (ACBR) is presented in detail. Paper registration form contains information on maternal pre-pregnancy and pregnancy health status, reproductive history, data on folic acid and multivitamin intake as well as alcohol consumption and tobacco smoking before and during pregnancy. Pregnancy outcomes with data on babies' anthropometry and Apgar score are also recorded. For sick liveborn infants, diagnosis and provided treatment are specified. Practical issues of ACBR implementation including the process of transferring data from registration paper forms to computer database are described. From January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2014, 43 327 births were recorded in the ACBR. It comprises 99.6 % of all stillborn and liveborn infants with gestational age 22 and more weeks born in Arkhangelsk County in 2012-2014. Four hundred ninety four births (1.1 %) are multiple. In 2013 and 2014, quality controls demonstrated that 97.3% records in computer database are identical to data in paper registration forms. Ethical and legal issues are discussed. All records in the ACBR are depersonalized. Some practical issues as well as future perspectives of the ACBR for cohort and cross-sectional studies in a field of perinatal epidemiology are also discussed.

Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes among Adolescents in Northwest Russia: A Population Registry-Based Study

“…The strength of this study is a large and validated database. Since the ACBR covers 99.6% of all births that took place in Arkhangelsk County in 2012–2014 [ 36 ], the results of our study can be generalized to the entire population of adolescents in Northwest Russia. In addition, the regions in Northwest Russia are similar in their population structure.…”

“…This study is a retrospective registry-based study with data from the Arkhangelsk County Birth Registry (ACBR), Northwest Russia. A detailed description of the ACBR was published earlier [ 36 ]. The ACBR includes data on virtually all live- and stillbirths from 22 weeks of gestation in Arkhangelsk County from 1 January 2012.…”

“…The coverage of the ACBR is 99.6%. The identity of information in medical documents, registration forms, as well as in electronic databases was approved by quality controls [ 36 ]. The ACBR contains maternal sociodemographic, lifestyle, and behavior information, data about the mother’s health before and during the pregnancy in consideration, information about the delivery and the newborn’s health.…”

“…No additional interviews with postpartum women are used. All records from paper-based registration forms are then transferred to a depersonified electronic database [ 36 ].…”

Secular trends of socio-demographic and lifestyle characteristics among delivering women in Arctic Russia, 1973-2017

“…The MCBR was established in 2005, and the prospective registration of pregnancy outcomes began on the 1 st of January 2006 [ 34 ]. The ACBR was established in 2011 with prospective data collection from the 1 st of January 2012 [ 35 ]. The territorial birth registry forms were made on the basis of medical birth registry of Norway with the similar information on maternal sociodemographic, lifestyle and behaviour data, evidence on the maternal health before and during the pregnancy, information about the delivery and the newborn’s health.…”