Unreliable medical information on birth certificates.
OBJECTIVE
To compare selected maternal, obstetric and newborn medical information on live birth certificates to medical record abstracted data.


METHODS
The Florida Department of Health provided a computer tape containing the Hillsborough County Florida live birth certificate data for July 1, 1992, through December 31, 1996. This information was compared to selected maternal, obstetric and newborn medical data abstracted from the hospital records of women who delivered in that county.


RESULTS
Three hospitals provided care for 75% (44,654) of all deliveries in the county in the study period. There were no differences in age, race, gravidity or parity of patients between the data sets. There was no concurrence between the number of patients on the state-compiled birth certificate data and the medical record data in 8 maternal medical complications, 5 complications of labor and delivery, 3 obstetric procedures, 3 abnormal neonatal conditions or 7 congenital anomalies from any hospitals. There was no difference between the three hospitals in the incidence of mismatches.


CONCLUSIONS
The medical information on the birth certificates from this county was discrepant from that abstracted directly from the patients' medical records. Caution is required in drawing conclusions from these data sets.
Gore
David C
DC
Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Family and Community Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, USA.
Chez
Ronald A
RA
Remmel
Randall J
RJ
Harahan
Michelle
M
Mock
Michelle
M
Yelverton
Robert
R
D001719:Birth Certificates; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007229:Infant Welfare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008429:Maternal Welfare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008490:Medical Informatics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008499:Medical Records / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results