Improving the collection and dissemination
of vital statistics at international level
Dr Fatima Marinho, MD, PhD
Coordinator of Health Information and Analysis
United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Standards for Civil
Registration and Vital Statistics Systems. United Nations, New York, 27-30 June 2011
2011
Content
• General aspects about the document for
discussion
• Collection of Vital Statistics
• Dissemination of Vital Statistics
• Recommendations
Pan American
Health
Organization
2011
Content
• General aspects about the document for
discussion
• Collection of Vital Statistics
• Dissemination of Vital Statistics
• Recommendations
Pan American
Health
Organization
2011
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
Pan American
Health
Organization
2011
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
Pan American
Health
Organization
2011
Content
• General aspects about the document for
discussion
• Collection of Vital Statistics
• Dissemination of Vital Statistics
• Recommendations
Pan American
Health
Organization
2011
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.
Pan American
Health
Organization
2011
Collection of Vital Statistics
•
Suggestions for improving the data collection
process
1. 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
Pan American
Health
Organization
2011
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
Pan American
Health
Organization
2.- Implementation of Data Exchange
Services as part of VS Information
Systems
•
•
•
•
2011
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
Pan American
Health
Organization
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.
Pan American
Health
Organization
2011
2011
Content
• General aspects about the document for
discussion
• Collection of Vital Statistics
• Dissemination of Vital Statistics
• Recommendations
Pan American
Health
Organization
2011
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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Health
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Some differences between Vital
Statistics and Civil Registration
for the same year
Number of Birth
% Number of Deaths
Country
UNSD PAHO PAHO/UNSD UNSD PAHO
Brazil
2752401 2934829
7
1079228 1070698
Colombia 686045 719968
5
193580 196748
Guatemala 369769 369769
0
70233 67736
El Salvador 112049 106504
-5
31594 31594
Paraguay 99674 102163
2
24417 22826
Pan American
Health
Organization
2011
Infant Deaths %
UNSD PAHO PAHO/UNSD
33713 41132 18
9250 10524 12
9042 7303 -24
947 947
0
1674 1665
-1
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?
Mortality Pneumonia and Influenza
Seasonality - Brazil
2011
1800
1600
1400
1200
P&I Deaths
1000
800
600
400
200
0
1 3 5 7 9 11131517192123252729313335373941434547495153
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Health
Organization
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
For some countries VS is more complete than CR
VS in Brazil has the mortality by day and CR
doesn’t
Mortality Data
Under- registration %
2011
English Speaking Caribbean
Countries
ABW
GUY
BLZ
BHS
TCA
DMA
AIA
ATG
TTO
VGB
KNA
MSR
VCT
SUR
LCA
GRD
BRB
BMU
0.0
5.0
10.0
15.0
20.0
% de subregistro
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Health
Organization
Source: PAHO Health Indicators, 2010
25.0
30.0
35.0
2011
Terms and definitions: in this specific case, the definition refers to
Maternal mortality ratio but the title to Maternal Mortality rate
Pan American
Health
Organization
2011
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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Health
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Data & Data Visualizations
Pan American
Health
Organization
2011
Available online at PAHO Health Observatory: http://www.paho.org
Data Visualizations from PAHO
Indicators
2011
From :
- data to Information
- information to knowledge
- knowledge to actions
More effective and
innovative ways to
communicate data and
statistics.
Pan American
Health
Organization
Available at PAHO Health Observatory: http://www.paho.org
2011
Content
• General aspects about the document for
discussion
• Collection of Vital Statistics
• Dissemination of Vital Statistics
• Recommendations
Pan American
Health
Organization
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.
Pan American
Health
Organization
2011