Vital Statistics Commission of Jamaica - Planning Institute of Jamaica

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Audit of Vital Registration and Vital Statistics Systems: Jamaica shared are not always consistent. Often, there are multiple estimates of the same indicator (e.g., number of births) caused ostensibly due to data sets with different cutoff dates – data sets with later cutoff dates will be more complete and therefore will indicate a larger number of births or deaths. In addition, there were no control totals provided along with the data sets. Another more minor difference involves the parish and district codes. Those used by STATIN are different from those used by RGD. While it would be ideal if a standard set of geographic codes were used, conversion between coding systems is relatively simple. Of somewhat more concern is the fact that districts defined by STATIN do not correspond to registration districts defined by RGD. STATIN has staff with the expertise to produce national vital statistics. However, they do not currently demonstrate a clear understanding of the structure and format of the RGD data and data collection processes. STATIN also lacks a published set of technical notes detailing the methodologies, definitions, and procedures used to produce the vital statistics published in their annual report. Also noteworthy is the fact that PIOJ is required by the Planning Institute of Jamaica Act (Section 11) to publish annual reports within 3 months of the end of the year. STATIN publishes annual reports on this same schedule (although the Statistics Act does not mandate this). This will require preliminary data from RGD. At this time, there is no standard procedure or cutoff for designating preliminary or final data. 13
Audit of Vital Registration and Vital Statistics Systems: Jamaica RECOMMENDATIONS The findings point to core challenges which are the absence of a standard definition of vital statistics, ineffective inter-agency communication, a lack of accountability, and insufficient management control processes. Our fundamental recommendation is that all vital statistics produced by the Jamaican government and/or its respective ministries and agencies should utilize the same standard data sets, methodologies, and definitions. The collection and production of vital statistics is a process (see Exhibit A, Flow Chart “Vital Statistics Data Collection, Analysis, and Production, Proposed Flow of Data). The RGD should be responsible for producing annual “vital statistics data sets” containing information on births and deaths (including fetal deaths, if desired) which would be extracts from the current registration databases. These annual data sets should be based on the year of occurrence rather than the year of registration. In collaboration with STATIN and PIOJ, the RGD should set a cutoff date approximately two months after the end of the calendar year at which point a “preliminary” data set should be released in order to satisfy the publication requirements of STATIN and PIOJ (three months from the end of the calendar year). Approximately 12 months from the end of the calendar year, the RGD should release a “final” data set for that year. This data set should be the official source for vital statistics and should remain static. Recognizing that all vital events may not be captured completely at the 12 month mark, the registration databases should be updated continuously. The RGD should publish annually a set of technical notes with a description of the data collection process and the methodologies utilized to construct the vital statistics data sets, including control totals. In addition, the RGD should track on an annual basis, and publish in the technical notes, the number of events registered after the preliminary and final cutoff dates. This will serve to provide a means for evaluating the completeness of the statistical data sets. STATIN should be responsible for producing and publishing official “vital statistic reports” including statistics generated from the data sets generated by the RGD. STATIN should publish annually a set of technical notes detailing the methodologies, definitions, and procedures used to produce its statistics. It is critical that these statistics be replicable by others (e.g., PIOJ) using the same data sets. Preliminary vital statistics should be used by STATIN (and PIOJ) in its annual reports as estimates of the most recent data available and should be prominently identified as preliminary. In subsequent annual reports, the preliminary statistics should be replaced by final statistics generated from the final data sets. Studies of vital statistics data quality and completeness carried out by or funded by government agencies should involve all key stakeholders in the conceptual stages. At the very least, research protocols and reports of findings should be subject to a clearance process in which each stakeholder agency has the opportunity to comment. Every effort should be made to ensure that the results of such studies are presented constructively with the express purpose of improving data quality and completeness. 14
Page 2 and 3: Vital Statistics Commission of Jama
Page 4 and 5: Audit of Vital Registration and Vit

Vital Statistics Commission of Jamaica - Planning Institute of Jamaica

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?