The Palestinian National Institute of Public Health (PNIPH) and the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH) are working together continuously on quality assessment of birth registry data in Palestine in order to improve the quality and utility of data in decision making. These efforts were conducted using the Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) Technical Guide developed by Melbourne University to assess the quality of Birth Registration Data (BRD). Analysis was conducted using Excel.

The Palestinian Health Information Center (PHIC) provided 2021 BRD for the West Bank (WB) and Gaza Strip (GS). Birth data for the State of Palestine were provided by the United Nations World Population Prospect (UN WPP) for 2021 and were used as a comparator.

This report presents the quality assessment of birth registry data of Palestine for 2021. A total of 137,209 births were registered in 2021 (81778 in the WB, 55431 in the GS), with a crude birth rate (CBR) of 26.2. These data contain other key birth characteristics that provide important information about fertility trends and birth details in Palestine, including the mother’s age, number and order of births, pregnancy and delivery circumstances, and health care provided. The analysis comprised six main steps, with each step being an indicator of the quality of birth data.

The overall quality of birth data is reflected through the Vital Statistic Performance Index (VSPI), which is a summary index of data quality, the closer to 100, the better data quality. Results indicated that the BRD is relatively of a good quality, with a VSPI-Births score of about 88.6. Completeness of birth registry data is the main parameter that determines data quality. Registry completeness in Palestine was 93%. However, there has been variations in the other components of the VSPI that affected that overall score, thus, the overall data quality. The proportion of births with unspecified birth order, weight, and mother`s age (9%, 7%, 7%) lowered the score as they should be closer to zero. Whereas births with unspecified sex were zero percent. Moreover, a remarkable difference in the completeness off this data between the WB and GS has been detected, where WB had higher percentages of missing values.

The results indicates that efforts should be directed towards achieving 100% of birth registry completeness. Additionally, attention should be focused on decreasing the proportion of births with unspecified birth order, weight, and mother`s age, and unifying birth registry procedures between WB and GS.

Several recommendations have been suggested to improve completeness and data quality. The most important recommendations include focusing on the role of hospitals in assuring complete, correct, and prompt data registry of the other birth indicators, and developing validation procedures at each level of data collection to allow for immediate follow-up and correction of any errors or missing data elements. Moreover, the birth notification form (BNF) used for birth registry data should also be reviewed and updated to minimize unused data and to ensure certain important data elements are attainable directly. On another hand, unifying work flow and registry procedures between WB and GS shall have a positive impact on the overall data quality.