Improving the collection and dissemination of vital statistics at international level

United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Standards for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems. United Nations, New York, 27-30 June 2011

Dr Fatima Marinho, MD, PhDCoordinator of Health Information and Analysis

2011

Pan AmericanHealthOrganization

Content

• General aspects about the document for discussion

• Collection of Vital Statistics

• Dissemination of Vital Statistics

• Recommendations

2011

Pan AmericanHealthOrganization

Content

• General aspects about the document for discussion

• Collection of Vital Statistics

• Dissemination of Vital Statistics

• Recommendations

2011

Pan AmericanHealthOrganization

General aspects about the document for discussion

• It would be good if an evaluation of the progress of Vital Registration at national level overtime is included. – Tables 1 to 6 do not show progress on data collection and data

quality over time. It is expected that the quantity and quality of data is improved over time. Is that happening?

• The improvement on data collection and dissemination processes in UNSD should not be isolated from what is occurring on the Vital Registration & rest of NSO’s information systems– It is not presented in the document this interaction and vision

2011

Pan AmericanHealthOrganization

General aspects about the document for discussion

• It is not included in the document if exist any continuous feedback mechanism to know about:– the impact of the UNSD’s efforts regarding

data collection and dissemination in countries– What is the NSO perception about the added

value of UNDS data collection and dissemination processes

– What is the value of UNSD’s products – let say reports and data, to countries

2011

Pan AmericanHealthOrganization

Content

• General aspects about the document for discussion

• Collection of Vital Statistics

• Dissemination of Vital Statistics

• Recommendations

2011

Pan AmericanHealthOrganization

Collection of Vital Statistics

• Current practice is mainly based on questionnaires (Excel format)– This is a common practice in many international institutions.

It is acceptable but could be improved– Some drawbacks of this practice:

• Introduction of errors while entering data manually from one source to other

• Generate an extra work burden at national level (NSO) because of data should be entered in an questionnaire out of National VS system.

• Low level of harmonization (high fragmentation) of the dimensions per measure and/or indicator. e.g Live births

• Lost of valuable data and information as they are collected at a high level of aggregation.

2011

Pan AmericanHealthOrganization

Collection of Vital Statistics

• Suggestions for improving the data collection process1. Implementation of web-based applications for

data collection from NSO

2. Implementation of Data Exchange Services in UNSD and NSO Information systems using data & metadata exchange standards

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Pan AmericanHealthOrganization

1.- Implementation of web-based applications for data collection from NSO

• Intermediate solution

• It does not solve drawbacks of current practice (mentioned earlier)

• It improves the data collection, transformation and loading processes at international (global) level 1. Data can be checked & validated while being

entered to the system

2. Almost instant data availability in a central data repository

2011

Pan AmericanHealthOrganization

2.- Implementation of Data Exchange Services as part of VS Information Systems

• A most better solution that allow data exchange among heterogeneous information systems (IS).

• Use of data and metadata exchange standards e.g SDMX

• National data from a NSO IS can be extracted (pulled) from the UNSD IS and vice-versa

• Most of the drawbacks of the current practice can be solved with this solution as data is collected through automated processes

2011

Pan AmericanHealthOrganization

2.- Implementation of Data Exchange Services as part of VS Information Systems

• This solution requires:– an intermediate and/or advance level of

development of the VS Information System– investment to improve information system at

national level– improve the Human Resource capacity– envision a high level of harmonization among

levels of the Vital Statistic Information Systems, including interoperability and data exchange mechanisms among heterogeneous information systems.

2011

Pan AmericanHealthOrganization

Content

• General aspects about the document for discussion

• Collection of Vital Statistics

• Dissemination of Vital Statistics

• Recommendations

2011

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Dissemination of Vital Statistics

• It is important to recognize the tremendous progress in data and information dissemination reached by UNSD and UN

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Some differences between Vital Statistics and Civil Registration for

the same year

% %Country UNSD PAHO PAHO/UNSD UNSD PAHO UNSD PAHO PAHO/UNSDBrazil 2752401 2934829 7 1079228 1070698 33713 41132 18Colombia 686045 719968 5 193580 196748 9250 10524 12Guatemala 369769 369769 0 70233 67736 9042 7303 -24El Salvador 112049 106504 -5 31594 31594 947 947 0Paraguay 99674 102163 2 24417 22826 1674 1665 -1

Number of Birth Infant DeathsNumber of Deaths

Why don’t conciliate the data between two different sources? Is the difference between the date of registration and date of death an issue here?

2011

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020040060080010001200140016001800

1 3 5 7 9 11131517192123252729313335373941434547495153

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

Mortality Pneumonia and Influenza Seasonality - Brazil P

&I

Dea

ths

For some countries VS is more complete than CRVS in Brazil has the mortality by day and CR doesn’t

2011

Pan AmericanHealthOrganization

Source: PAHO Health Indicators, 2010

0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 35.0

BMUBRBGRDLCASURVCTMSRKNAVGBTTOATGAIA

DMATCABHSBLZGUYABW

% de subregistro

Mortality DataUnder- registration %

English Speaking Caribbean Countries

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Terms and definitions: in this specific case, the definition refers to Maternal mortality ratio but the title to Maternal Mortality rate

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Dissemination of Vital Statistics

• UNSD is disseminating and giving access to:– Data and statistics: UNdata portal– Publications and products: UN Demographic Yearbook,

Population Vital Statistics Report

• It is recommended to disseminates also information products as Data Visualizations

• Data and Statistics should be interpreted

• PAHO’s current practice on Data & Statistics dissemination is illustrated in next slide

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Data & Data Visualizations

Available online at PAHO Health Observatory: http://www.paho.org

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Data Visualizations from PAHO Indicators

From :- data to Information- information to knowledge- knowledge to actions

More effective and innovative ways to communicate data and statistics.

Available at PAHO Health Observatory: http://www.paho.org

2011

Pan AmericanHealthOrganization

Content

• General aspects about the document for discussion

• Collection of Vital Statistics

• Dissemination of Vital Statistics

• Recommendations

2011

Pan AmericanHealthOrganization

Recommendations

• Work together with NSO to conciliate and improve Vital Statistics and Civil Registration Information systems at both international and national level

• Implement a feedback mechanisms from countries

• Implement more effective processes for data collection, including the implementation of data exchange services and adoption of open data exchange standards e.g. SDMX

• Besides data and publications, disseminate data visualizations and analytic briefs and key messages oriented to diverse audiences

• Implements web sites for dissemination with capacity for more than one language.