Live birth certificates; evaluation of medical and health data in California.

In a study of 1,609 single live births occurring in San Francisco County, the information on the birth certificate was compared with that on the hospital record to determine completeness and accuracy of the items reported on the certificate. Items such as color or race of mother, age of mother, birth weight and birth length of child were well recorded on the certificate and agreed with information found in the hospital record. Medical conditions were grossly underreported on the birth certificate. Conditions relating to the mother were more frequently recorded than those relating to the infant, but the birth certificates recorded less than one-fifth of all medical conditions of both mother and infant that were entered in the hospital records. Methods suggested for improving the quality of maternal and newborn morbidity information include revision of the medical section of the present certificates of live birth and fetal death and use of a precoded hospital record.