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Table 1 Overview of data sources used for comparing infectious disease deaths in children under five years

From: Comparison of paediatric infectious disease deaths in public sector health facilities using different data sources in the Western Cape, South Africa (2007–2021)

 

Sources utilised from the Western Cape Provincial Health Data Centre

A single consolidated environment which houses individuated patient-level health data for the Western Cape

 

Routine hospital information systems

Child Healthcare Problem Identification Programme

Death Notification (DN) Surveillance

Brief description

Routine hospital information systems in the province capturing key information for each admission, including the unique patient identifier, patient demographics and hospital administration data, and discharge codes and summaries

An audit process of all in-hospital child (0–18 years) deaths in public health facilities that participate voluntarily

All deaths, in- or out-of-hospital, are recorded once the DN forms have been captured by the DHA. These data were leveraged for DN with cause of death data being shared with the DoH

Time period

01/01/2007–01/12/2021

23/05/2007–08/02/2021

01/01/2010–01/12/2013

Coverage

All public hospitals capturing in-facility deaths since the date when electronic admission and discharge data were networked into the WCPHDC.*

Selected public health facilities that voluntarily participate, thereby only capturing in-facility deaths in participating facilities

All notified deaths in the province, in- or out-of-hospital. For this study, we restricted to in-facility deaths

Source of death reporting

Admission ICD-10 coding (primary, subsidiary and secondary 1–10) from clinical records

Cause of death as determined by clinical audit

Cause of death as recorded on DN form

Variables

Date of death, ICD-10 codes (to determine proxy cause of death), and hospital admission date

Date of death, cause of death, and hospital admission date

Date of death and cause of death

Frequency of data source updates to the WCPHDC

Daily

Approximately annually

No longer provided

Advantages

Complete and timeous recording of all deaths in facilities with electronic data capture as every separation requires an entry

Reports in depth information on child deaths, including modifiable factors. Reports are available timeously

Includes all deaths (public and private health sector, and out-of-hospital deaths)

associated causes

Disadvantages

Only available for public health facilities and in-hospital deaths. The cause of death is not explicitly coded, but has to be inferred from the diagnostic code for the admission during which the death occurred

Not all public health facilities participate (voluntary). Private sector death information is not included

Cannot be used for short/medium term planning due to the reporting delay (2 years)

Contributing or modifiable factors are not recorded

Deaths are underreported (not reported or form does not reach the DHA), incomplete or incorrect. Deaths are also not available for foreign nationals without a South African identification number. Data are collated nationally and individual cause of death data is not provided to provincial health departments. Aggregate mortality data are only provided at the level of the province and not for smaller geographic areas

  1. DHA Department of Home Affairs, DoH Department of Health, DN Death Notification, ICD-10 International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision
  2. *In-facility death reporting was achieved incrementally since 2007 as hospitals became networked in the province