National Paediatric Mortality Register (NPMR)
National Office of Clinical Audit (NOCA).
1992 under governance of SIDS Ireland, governance transferred to NOCA in 2020.
To provide accurate up to date information on mortality in Ireland to include all deaths in children 16yrs but does not include deaths occurring in maternity hospitals.
In scope: In-hospital deaths of children aged up to 15 completed years.
Out of scope: children who die outside of hospital, children who die in maternity hospitals.
National data collected on children 2yrs from 1992. Scope of data collection extended to all children 16yrs, initiated in CHI at Temple St and CHI at Tallaght in 2019 and is ongoing with objective to extend to all units nationally.
The Paediatric Mortality Register collects and analyses data on all deaths in children 16yrs nationally. Reports provide accurate data on the incidence of all paediatric deaths (aged 28days - 15 completed years);
- Deaths by age and gender
- Deaths by place of death- hospital v elsewhere
- Death by cause of death category
- Annual trends in cod categories- highlight lack of decline in suicide rates, stabilisation of SIDS rates, high rates of injury deaths resulting from NAI in young children (parental mental health issue)
- Comparison with international data.
An element of quantitative analysis relating to the narrative description provided at the end of autopsy reports.
CHI/other hospital groups, HSE, TUSLA, NPEC, paediatricians, Coroners, academia, Irish Hospice Foundation, patient organisations, Proposed NOCA Paediatric Audit Advisory Committee.
Content includes age; sex; infant birth weight; place of death; cause of deaths, hospital transferred from, pathologist, Coroner.
Not currently publicly available.
No.
Age and gender.
Complete notification form forwarded directly to NOCA by hospital.
CSO provides quarterly metadata files of deaths registered. Coroners provide post mortem results.
All data is coded and entered in the register’s database. A coding system is used in order to assist with transfer of data into the statistical software package used for analysis. All data entry, statistical analysis, database management and reporting of results is carried out by NOCA NPMR personnel only. Ongoing annual surveillance means that effects and changes in paediatric death are monitored as they occur, with demographic factors documented alongside.
ICD-10 codes assigned by the CSO (Central Statistics Office).
Approximately 300 deaths registered by CSO annually. Autopsy reports on approximately one third of deaths. All deaths occurring in CHI at Temple St and CHI at Tallaght notified to NPMR = 28 records per year on average.
Annual reports published since 1993.
https://www.noca.ie/about-noca/access-to-audit-data
No.
The register is in the process of developing a strategy for extending its notification to all units nationally.
This register was previously called the National Sudden Infant Death Register. Infant mortality data, issued on a quarterly basis by the CSO, refers to deaths registered during that period. Due to delays in registration, the figures in some cases relate to deaths that occurred in the previous year. This means that SIDS figure from the CSO may differ from those of the register since the register’s figures are based on year of occurrence. The register also includes SIDS deaths in infants over one year of age whereas the CSO restricts its infant mortality figures to those deaths which occurred in infants under one year of age only.