Assessment of a health program database: the British Columbia pregnancy outreach program

The mandate of the British Columbia Pregnancy Outreach Program (POP) is to provide education and support to high risk pregnant women. The purpose of the POP is to reduce the incidence of adverse birth outcomes. The initial intent of this study was to use the 1994/95 POP database as a basis for an epidemiological investigation of the relationship between the identification of risk factors and actual birth outcomes. In the course of the initial analyses, it was discovered, however, that significant data quality issues precluded any undertaking of the proposed research. The focus of the research was redirected to a methodical assessment of the database, using a conceptual framework outlining criteria for assessing such databases. In order to establish the database's utility within these areas, a review of each variable of the database was made in terms of record completion rates, verification of internal consistency, and assessment of coding errors. The findings of this investigation revealed that completion of data for each variable was consistently low. In addition, measurements of internal consistency indicated inaccuracies. In the process of the analysis of the database it was clear that definitions of variables required clarification and methods to reduce coding errors within the database needed to be introduced. Currently, stakeholders of the POP are reviewing the evaluation of the Program and its corresponding database. This thesis has documented fully the problems encountered in the database with respect to every variable that is entered. Ideally, the next phase of the development of this database would address the data quality issues identified in this investigation in order that the resulting information could be analyzed with confidence.