A vital statistics system for determining births and mortality in the First Nations population of British Columbia, Canada

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Abstract
We describe a unique method for producing province-wide and selected regional birth and death statistics for the First Nations population, We identified births and deaths of persons with Indian Status in the province of British Columbia, Canada, using three databases: the Vital Statistics Agency’s database of births and deaths, the Department of Indian Affairs’ Indian Status Verification File and the provincial health insurance plan’s Status Indian Entitlement file. A birth or death was considered Status Indian if the person was so identified in any of the three sources. From 1991 through 1998, 24,159 live births were identified as Status Indian: 54% by all three sources, 29% by two sources and 17% by one source. In the same period, 5,680 Status Indian deaths were identified: 28% by all three sources, 38% by two sources and 34% by one source. Deaths were grouped by Underlying Cause and rates in each category were age-standardized for comparison to the general population. This project underscores the importance of using more than one database to ensure complete counting. Otherwise, birth and death rates will be underestimated. This has implications for national reporting if each province does not have a comparable system.