Birth defects research. Part A, Clinical and molecular teratology
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Birth Defects Res. Part A Clin. Mol. Teratol. · Oct 2005
Improving case ascertainment of a population-based birth defects registry in New York State using hospital discharge data.
The assessment of the data quality of population-based registration systems is essential to understanding the reliability and usefulness of disease surveillance and research findings resulting from the use of registry data. Since the New York State Congenital Malformations Registry (CMR) uses passive case ascertainment, the completeness of the registry data is an important aspect of the quality of information. This paper presents the results of hospital audits, which were conducted to capture the unreported cases using hospital discharge files, and evaluates the effectiveness of the audits. ⋯ The current study demonstrates that using hospital discharge data to improve case ascertainment is a valuable and effective method of enhancing birth defect surveillance, particularly for those hospitals with low reporting rates.