3301.0 - Births, Australia, 2007 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 28/10/2008   
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APPENDIX DIFFERENCES BETWEEN COLLECTIONS


BIRTH REGISTRATIONS COMPARED TO THE PERINATAL DATA COLLECTION

Birth registration data in this publication are not the only births data available in Australia. The National Perinatal Statistics Unit of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) also collects birth data from midwives and other health professionals who attend births. This data is published annually in Australia's Mothers and Babies.

As information from these two collections are from different sources, the statistics obtained vary. For example, the Perinatal Data Collection reported the occurrence of 270,400 live births in Australia in 2005 (the latest available data), 4.1% more than the 259,800 births registered in the same year.

Graph A2.1 shows the total number of live births in Australia by type of collection and recording basis from 1992 to 2007. Births from the Perinatal Data Collection are shown on a year of occurrence basis. Registered births from the ABS Birth Registrations collection are shown on both a year of registration and year of occurrence basis, which includes births that occurred in a particular year but may have been registered up to and including the year 2007. Prior to 1994, the Perinatal Data Collection showed fewer births than births registered. This position then reversed, with the gap between births reported in the two collections widening until 1999 (when there were 2.7% more births recorded in the Perinatal Data Collection than births registered). The size of the difference between the two collections decreased to 0.4% by 2004, and increased to 4.1% in 2005.

While difficult to explain the differences, the greater number of births in the Perinatal Data Collection may be due to improvements in quality and coverage, particularly with the introduction of a perinatal National Minimum Dataset (NMDS) in 1997 which developed national standards for the collection of perinatal statistics. The trend may also reflect the increasing likelihood over time of parent(s) to delay or fail to register the birth of a child.

A2.1 Live births, Type of collection
Graph: A2.1 Live births, Type of collection


The following analysis of differences between the collections is made on live births between the Perinatal Data Collection on a year of occurrence basis and the Birth Registrations collection on a year of registration basis.


Age of mother

Age of mother is a factor which contributes to differences between the two collections. In 2005, a higher number of confinements were recorded in the Perinatal Data Collection than in the Birth Registrations collection for mothers in all age groups. For mothers aged 19 years and under, there were 10.6% more confinements recorded in the Perinatal Data Collection, while for mothers aged 20-24 years the difference was 8.4%.

A2.2 Confinements, Difference between collections by age of mother - 2005

Perinatal Data Collection
Birth Registrations
Difference(a)
no.
no.
%

19 years and under
11 799
10 669
10.6
20-24 years
39 131
36 094
8.4
25-29 years
71 615
68 393
4.7
30-34 years
90 515
87 549
3.4
35-39 years
45 764
43 857
4.3
40 years and over
8 948
8 543
4.7
Total(b)
267 793
255 481
4.8

(a) Positive figures denote more confinements recorded in the Perinatal Data Collection than the Birth Registrations collection.
(b) Includes age of mother not stated.



Births to Indigenous mothers

There are differences between Indigenous data from the Perinatal Data Collection and birth registrations data. In all years from 1997 to 2005 the number of births to Indigenous mothers as recorded in the Perinatal Data Collection exceeded registered births to Indigenous mothers. In 2005 there were 9,900 live births to Indigenous mothers recorded in the Perinatal Data Collection, 1,300 more than the number recorded in the Birth Registrations collection (8,600).

It is important to recognise that data concerning Indigenous status is affected by identification issues. Differences between the Perinatal Data Collection and birth registrations data may in part be due to undercoverage of registrations of Indigenous births or delays in the registration of Indigenous births. However, failure to determine Indigenous status may also affect the Perinatal Data Collection. As a result, caution should be used when interpreting Indigenous births data from either source. Paragraphs 30 to 36 of the Explanatory Notes provide further information about Indigenous births.

A2.3 Live births to Indigenous mothers, Type of collection
Graph: A2.3 Live births to Indigenous mothers, Type of collection



State and territory comparisons

While birth registration data provides information on state/territory of registration or state/territory of usual residence of mother, the Perinatal Data Collection only provides data on the state/territory in which the birth took place (that is, the state/territory of occurrence). The following table compares state/territory of usual residence from birth registrations to state/territory of occurrence from the Perinatal Data Collection. As a small number of births occur in a different state or territory to that of the mother's usual residence, there are some minor differences. For example, some women living in rural New South Wales close to the Australian Capital Territory have their babies in Canberra. As a consequence, the Australian Capital Territory has been excluded from the comparisons below.

In 2005, the Perinatal Data Collection recorded more births in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia, while the ABS birth registrations collection recorded more births in Tasmania and the Northern Territory.

A2.4 Live births, Type of collection by state/territory - 2005

NSW
Vic.
Qld
SA
WA
Tas.
NT
Total(a)

Perinatal Data Collection (no.)
90 073
66 041
54 905
18 066
26 783
5 874
3 657
270 440
Birth Registrations (no.)
86 589
63 287
51 661
17 800
26 253
6 308
3 659
259 791
Difference (%)(b)
4.0
4.4
6.3
1.5
2.0
-6.9
-0.1
4.1

(a) Includes Australian Capital Territory and Other Territories.
(b) Positive figures denote more births recorded in the Perinatal Data Collection than the Birth Registrations collection.