Monitoring of IVF birth outcomes in Finland: a data quality study.
BACKGROUND
The collection of information on infertility treatments is important for the surveillance of potential health consequences and to monitor service provision.


METHODS
We compared the coverage and outcomes of IVF children reported in aggregated IVF statistics, the Medical Birth Register (subsequently: MBR) and research data based on reimbursements for IVF treatments in Finland in 1996-1998.


RESULTS
The number of newborns were nearly equal in the three data sources (N = 4331-4384), but the linkage between the MBR and the research data revealed that almost 40% of the reported IVF children were not the same individuals. The perinatal outcomes in the three data sources were similar, excluding the much lower incidence of major congenital anomalies in the IVF statistics (157/10 000 newborns) compared to other sources (409-422/10 000 newborns).


CONCLUSIONS
The differences in perinatal outcomes in the three data sets were in general minor, which suggests that the observed non-recording in the MBR is most likely unbiased.
Gissler
Mika
M
STAKES National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health, Information Division, Helsinki, Finland. mika.gissler@stakes.fi
Klemetti
Reija
R
Sevón
Tiina
T
Hemminki
Elina
E
D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000013:Congenital Abnormalities / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005307:Fertilization in Vitro / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D005387:Finland; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology