Registration

Registration of diseases represents the initial act in the matter of statistical research of population morbidity. Its task is the collection of primary material. R. consists of accounting for each individual case of manifestation of the phenomenon being studied and describing it according to the signs provided for in the program form. In order for R. to achieve uniformity, which is a condition sine qua non of any statistical research, it is necessary to precede its implementation with a set of rules regulating the activities of registering authorities. With regard to R. of diseases, at the present time the following provisions have been established, developed through the practice of statistical work. 1) The unit of account in the study of population morbidity (general and epidemic) is a case of new disease, expressed in the form of the first visit of a given person with a disease not previously registered by a medical organization; in the statistics of so-called morbidity of the population, the unit is the sick person; in the statistics of morbidity with temporary loss of working capacity, the case of loss of working capacity is taken as the unit of account, and in diseases with permanent loss of working capacity—the person who has lost it (disabled person). 2) R. of observations on morbidity is entrusted to the medical personnel of all institutions providing therapeutic and preventive care, and to all physicians in the area where the research is conducted. 3) R. must cover all cases of the phenomenon being studied regardless of the place of observation (outpatient clinic, apartment, hospital, etc.) and should be made, if possible, at the moment of observation itself; non-compliance with this may be a source of erroneous and incomplete records. 4) The designation of the diagnosis of diseases constitutes one of the most essential parts in the process of R. In view of the fact that a large number of people participate in this process and various points of view may exist in the interpretation of many manifestations of pathological processes, to achieve the necessary uniformity (even if conditional) in records, a general nomenclature of diseases is established for registering authorities (see Nomenclature of Diseases). 5) The most rational form of record for collecting information and for their subsequent processing is a card designed to describe only one fact, one unit. The advantages of the card system over the list system lie mainly in the saving of labor in manual processing of primary records. As the basic form for R. of diseases until recent times, the so-called "general statistical card" has been adopted in the USSR, containing the following questions: in the heading section—number, name of the outpatient clinic, year, month, date of preparation of the card, note on the primary and repeated nature of the visit, on the insurance and social group, sex of the patient; in the main section—surname, name, patronymic, age, nationality, where the patient lives, where works—with indication of the place of work and detailed profession if the patient is a worker or employee (otherwise only the type of occupation or position is noted), how long the patient has been ill, disease. The brevity of the content of the described card is explained by the fact that it serves for R. of all cases of observation and in all therapeutic and preventive institutions. Along with the aforementioned card, which is basic in the study of general morbidity, there are a number of cards designed for special purposes, namely: a) the personal card of the patient, on which all diseases of each given patient are recorded in sequence; it is established for the purpose of identifying newly ill persons; a more developed form of this card is the personal health journal of a worker, used in systematic examinations of the health status of workers, and also for schoolchildren—in regular health examinations of children of school age; b) the statistical card of a hospital patient and c) the statistical card of childbirth, intended for collecting information about hospitalized patients, pregnant women and parturients. 6) Obtaining complete and high-quality material is possible with full familiarity of the registering authorities with the methods, rules and forms of registration. To promote the latter, special instructions were issued by the People's Commissariat of Health of the RSFSR in 1928.