Abstract
Completeness is an important indicator of data quality in cancer registry programs. This study aimed to estimate the completeness of registered cases in a population based cancer registry program implemented in five provinces of Iran. Capture-recapture methods were used to esti-mate the number of cases that may have been missed and to estimate rates of completeness for different categories of age, year, and sex. The data used for this study were obtained from three sources: 1) National Pathology Database; 2) National Hospital Discharge Database; and 3) National Death Registry Database. The three sources were linked and duplicates were identified based on first name, last name, father's names, and date of birth, ICD code, and case's residency address using Microsoft Excel. Removing duplicates, the three sources reported a total of 35,643 cases from March 2008 to March 2011. Running many different multivariate models of capture-recapture and controlling for source dependencies revealed an overall under-reporting of 49% in all five registries combined. The estimated completeness differed based on age, sex, and year. The overall completeness was higher for males than females (71.2% for males and 59.9% for females). Younger age had lower rates of completeness compared to older age (38.1% for <40 years, 55.4% for 40-60 years, and 76.7 for>60 years). The results of this study indicated a moderate to severe (depending on the age, sex and year) degree of completeness in the population based cancer registration of Iran.
Highlights
Cancer is a leading cause of death in both more and less economically developed countries
The results of this study indicated a moderate to severe degree of completeness in the population based cancer registration of Iran
Since most cancer registries employ more than one data source for case finding, the capture-recapture method may be used to estimate the number of incident cases in the population and to assess the completeness of case ascertainment (Robles et al, 1988)
Summary
Cancer is a leading cause of death in both more and less economically developed countries. The report was based on the data collected from pathologic centers It included cancer data from 1945 – 1956 with an incidence rate of 28/100,000 in the south and 42/100,000 in the north of Iran (Habibi, 1984; Mohagheghi and Mosavi-Jarrahi, 2010). Capture-recapture method is used in various health related fields to estimate hidden populations, completeness of registrations, incidence, and prevalence of diseases and special events (Hook and Regal, 1995). Since most cancer registries employ more than one data source for case finding, the capture-recapture method may be used to estimate the number of incident cases in the population and to assess the completeness of case ascertainment (Robles et al, 1988). This study aims to estimate the completeness of GI cancer from three sources using the capture-recapture method and the log linear model
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