Housing assistance, Standard 20/06/2005 Health, Standard 04/05/2005 Early Childhood, Standard 21/05/2010 Homelessness, Standard 23/08/2010 Tasmanian Health, Endorsed 31/08/2016 WA Health, Endorsed 19/03/2015 Independent Hospital Pricing Authority, Standard 01/11/2012 Indigenous, Endorsed 11/08/2014 Commonwealth Department of Health, Standard 14/10/2015 Disability, Standard 07/10/2014 Children and Families, Standard 22/11/2016 Community Services (retired), Standard 25/08/2005 National Health Performance Authority (retired), Retired 01/07/2016 ACT Health, Final 19/07/2018 Youth Justice, Standardisation pending 10/01/2022
Definition:
The date of birth of the person, expressed as DDMMYYYY.
If date of birth is not known or cannot be obtained, provision should be made to collect or estimate age. Collected or estimated age would usually be in years for adults, and to the nearest three months (or less) for children aged less than two years. Additionally, an estimated date flag or a date accuracy indicator should be reported in conjunction with all estimated dates of birth.
For data collections concerned with children's services, it is suggested that the estimated date of birth of children aged under 2 years should be reported to the nearest 3 month period, i.e. 0101, 0104, 0107, 0110 of the estimated year of birth. For example, a child who is thought to be aged 18 months in October of one year would have his/her estimated date of birth reported as 0104 of the previous year. Again, an estimated date flag or date accuracy indicator should be reported in conjunction with all estimated dates of birth.
Collection methods:
Information on date of birth can be collected using the one question:
What is your/(the person's) date of birth?
In self-reported data collections, it is recommended that the following response format is used:
Date of birth: _ _ / _ _ / _ _ _ _
This enables easy conversion to the preferred representational layout (DDMMYYYY).
For record identification and/or the derivation of other metadata items that require accurate date of birth information, estimated dates of birth should be identified by a date accuracy indicator to prevent inappropriate use of date of birth data. The linking of client records from diverse sources, the sharing of patient data, and data analysis for research and planning all rely heavily on the accuracy and integrity of the collected data. In order to maintain data integrity and the greatest possible accuracy an indication of the accuracy of the date collected is critical. The collection of an indicator of the accuracy of the date may be essential in confirming or refuting the positive identification of a person. For this reason it is strongly recommended that the data element Date—accuracy indicator, code AAA also be recorded at the time of record creation to flag the accuracy of the data.
Comments:
Privacy issues need to be taken into account in asking persons their date of birth.
Wherever possible and wherever appropriate, date of birth should be used rather than age because the actual date of birth allows a more precise calculation of age.
When date of birth is an estimated or default value, national health and community services collections typically use 0101 or 0107 or 3006 as the estimate or default for DDMM.
It is suggested that different rules for reporting data may apply when estimating the date of birth of children aged under 2 years because of the rapid growth and development of children within this age group which means that a child's development can vary considerably over the course of a year. Thus, more specific reporting of estimated age is suggested.
Source and reference attributes
Origin:
National Health Data Committee
National Community Services Data Committee
Reference documents:
Standards Australia 2002. AS5017—2002 Health Care Client Identification. Sydney: Standards Australia
Standards Australia 2004. AS4846—2004 Health Care Provider Identification. Sydney: Standards Australia
Relational attributes
Related metadata references:
See also Date—accuracy indicator, code AAA Housing assistance, Standard 23/08/2010, Health, Standard 04/05/2005, Early Childhood, Standard 21/05/2010, Homelessness, Standard 23/08/2010, Disability, Standard 07/10/2014, Community Services (retired), Standard 30/09/2005, ACT Health, Final 09/08/2018
See also Date—estimate indicator, code N Tasmanian Health, Draft 23/07/2012, Community Services (retired), Standard 27/04/2007
Supersedes Person—date of birth, DDMMYYYY Health, Superseded 04/05/2005, Community Services (retired), Superseded 25/08/2005
Is used in the formation of Record—linkage key, code 581 XXXXXDDMMYYYYN Housing assistance, Standard 23/08/2010, Health, Superseded 25/01/2018, Early Childhood, Standard 21/05/2010, Homelessness, Superseded 10/08/2018, Disability, Standard 07/10/2014, Community Services (retired), Standard 21/05/2010
Statistical linkage key 581 cluster Housing assistance, Standard 23/08/2010 Health, Superseded 25/01/2018 Early Childhood, Standard 21/05/2010 Homelessness, Superseded 10/08/2018 Disability, Standard 07/10/2014 Community Services (retired), Standard 21/05/2010
