Addressing birth in Gaza: using qualitative methods to improve vital registration

The use of anthropological qualitative methods to validate and improve heal th surveillance data is demonstrated through an examination of the process of birth registration in Gaza. Theoretically, the importance of understandi ng the link between historical events and microlevel decision-making is emp hasized both in general terms and specifically in the context of the Gaza S trip today. In the course of interviewing a sample of mother/infant pairs selected from a register of births in the Gaza Strip it became evident that 100% of the addresses were incomplete. Using qualitative methods in the form of field v isits and interviews with physicians, clerks and nurses, an understanding o f the information pathway for birth registration data was developed. It was also established that there was some erroneous recording of birthweight. A n intervention was designed which failed to improve the accuracy of address es but did improve the recording of birthweight. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.