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Perinatal data provided by notifications of births and deaths of low birthweight infants born to residents of Merseyside in 1979–1981 were validated by examining hospital case records. Failure to weigh all infants immediately after birth and to notify all neonatal deaths led to serious inaccuracies in the birth and mortality rates of low birthweight infants in 1979. Failure to notify birthweight was increasingly common with lower birthweight and was associated with increased neonatal mortality. Because a large proportion of all perinatal deaths is attributable to low birthweight infants, inaccurate data on these infants may seriously distort overall perinatal mortality rates. Data accuracy improved considerably after the problems were highlighted, which resulted in major shifts in reported birth and mortality rates. Notification of births and deaths have little value in monitoring service requirements or the effectiveness of perinatal care if marked variations in data accuracy are not detected.
Powell et al. (Sat,) studied this question.