Abstract

In data quality is important to investigate the extent to which the same answers can be obtained using different instruments for the same group of people or events. Miscarriage is a global public health issue that occurs during women’s reproductive life; however, the event of a miscarriage is not always well captured in medical records. We designed this study to determine agreement of the diagnosis of miscarriage, and the different classifications of miscarriage (e.g. missed, incomplete and complete miscarriage), between three data sources: electronic health records (EHR), the Hospital Inpatient Enquiry (HIPE) system, and the hospital register books at a tertiary maternity hospital in the Republic of Ireland from January to June 2017. Statistically, a very good level of agreement for diagnosis of hospitalisations of miscarriage was found between the three data sources; however, discrepancies were found when classifying the different types of miscarriage between the three data sources. For example, the HIPE database had a significantly lower percentage of hospitalisation for missed miscarriage compared to electronic health records (EHR). The number of ectopic and molar pregnancies was higher in the HIPE database compared to the EHR and the register books.