Unreliable medical information on birth certificates.

Objective: To compare selected maternal, obstetric and newborn medical information on live birth certificates to medical record abstracted data.

Study Design: The Florida Department of Health provided a computer tape containing the Hillsborough County Florida live birth certificate data for July 1, 1992, through December 31, 1996. This information was compared to selected maternal, obstetric and newborn medical data abstracted from the hospital records of women who delivered in that county.