Implementing a birth registry in a developing country - experiences from Georgia.

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Demography
• Medical Informatics

Background:

• Georgia pioneered a national digital medical birth registry in 2016.
• The registry structure is modeled after Nordic birth registries.
• 285 medical facilities contribute data from pregnancy week 12 to hospital discharge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the quality of selected variables in the Georgia Birth Registry.
• To present preliminary findings from the registry's first year of operation (2016).

Main Methods:

• Data collection from 285 medical facilities.
• Inclusion of 267 variables per birth.
• Analysis of 52,399 women and 53,236 newborns recorded in 2016.

Main Results:

• Registry completeness reached 93.9% in 2016.
• A discrepancy of 3,441 newborns was noted between the registry and official statistics.
• Mean gestational age was 271.3 days; Cesarean section rate was 43.5%.

Conclusions:

• The registry recorded more newborns than official birth statistics, impacting perinatal mortality rate accuracy.
• Cesarean-delivered newborns had lower gestational age and birth weight compared to vaginally delivered infants.