Validity of insurance information on California birth certificates.
OBJECTIVE
This study assessed the validity of health insurance information on California birth certificates.


METHODS
Insurance information from birth certificates and linked face-to-face interviews was compared for 7428 postpartum women in California.


RESULTS
There was excellent agreement between insurance information in birth certificate and interview data, especially when capitated plans were grouped with all other private coverage. Analyses using both data sources produced similar estimates of the likelihood of untimely prenatal care according to type of insurance coverage.


CONCLUSIONS
Birth certificate data including insurance information appear to be an appropriate resource for examining both the extent of coverage for maternity care and associations between prenatal care use and insurance status.
Braveman
P
P
Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of California, San Francisco 94143-0900, USA.
Pearl
M
M
Egerter
S
S
Marchi
K
K
Williams
R
R
D001719:Birth Certificates; D002140:California; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D049590:Postpartum Period; D011295:Prenatal Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results