The availability of perinatal health indicators in Europe

This paper uses the results of the PERISTAT feasibility study to assess the extent to which the participating countries of Europe were able to provide data to construct the core and recommended indicators of perinatal health defined in the project. After describing the approaches used for data collection in participating countries, this paper describes the extent to which they were able to provide the data requested to construct the indicators. It documents data sources within each country and their characteristics. The paper then discusses influences on the agenda, particularly the extent to which data collection occurs as a by-product of other processes such as civil registration and the administration of health care and how these processes can both enable and impede data collection. It closes by suggesting how data collection in Europe can be improved in order to widen the scope of the agenda for compiling perinatal indicators. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.