Journal article
No official identity: a data linkage study of birth registration of Aboriginal children in Western Australia
AJ Gibberd, JM Simpson, SJ Eades
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health | WILEY-BLACKWELL | Published : 2016
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Evidence of identity, particularly a birth certificate, is essential to access many rights. However, the births of many Aboriginal Australians are not registered when they are infants. We examined factors related to birth registration among Western Australian children born to Aboriginal mothers.METHODS: All births to Aboriginal mothers in the Midwives Notification System in Western Australia (WA) from 1980 to 2010 were linked to birth registrations. Associations between registration and maternal and child characteristics were examined for children aged under 16 years in 2012.RESULTS: Among 49,694 births between 1980 and 2010, 18% of those aged under 16 years had unregistered birth..
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Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)
Funding Acknowledgements
We thank staff at the Western Australian Data Linkage Branch and the data custodians of the Midwives Notification System, Birth Registrations, Hospital Morbidity Data System and Mental Health Information System for access to, and linkage of, the data. This work was conducted as part of the Western Australian Aboriginal Intergenerational Fetal Growth Study (WAAIFS), which is funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) (Grand ID 1007878). AG is supported by a PhD scholarship from Bellberry Limited.