Peer-reviewed article
Swedish Child Health Services Register: a quality register for child health services and children’s well-being
Mattias Wennergren, Karin Berg, Ann‐Sofie Frisk Cavefors, Helena Edin, Leif Ekholm et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001Sweden operates a national register of child health services data covering children under 6 years old. The Swedish Child Health Services Register includes information from over 110,000 children across eight regions, with 21 variables extracted automatically from health records. Data completeness varies by region and birth cohort, with an average coverage of 71% for children born in 2021. The register is designed to support evaluation of child health services, prevention of illness, and early detection of health problems.
Key points
- The register covers over 110,000 children born between 2011 and 2022 from 221 child healthcare centres
- Seven of eight participating regions report data from 100% of their centres
- Average data coverage for children born in 2021 is 71%
- Swedish child health services aims to promote health and development, prevent illness, and detect emerging problems early
- The register provides real-time data to support national evaluation and evidence-based development of child health interventions
Limitations
This document describes a data register and its coverage rather than evaluating outcomes or interventions. It cannot tell us whether the child health services themselves are effective in improving children's health, or what specific health outcomes have been achieved.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Swedish child health services (CHS) is a free-of-charge healthcare system that reaches almost all children under the age of 6. The aim for the CHS is to improve children's physical, psychological and social health by promoting health and development, preventing illness and detecting emerging problems early in the child's life. The services are defined in a national programme divided into three parts: universal interventions, targeted interventions and indicated interventions.The Swedish Child Health Services Register (BHVQ) is a national Quality Register developed in 2013. The register extracts data from the child's health record and automatically presents current data in real time. At present, the register includes 21 variables. AIM: We aim to describe data available in the BHVQ and the completeness of data in BHVQ across variables. METHODS: Child-specific data were exported from the register, and data for children born in the regions were retrieved from Statistics Sweden to calculate coverage. RESULTS: The register includes over 110 000 children born between 2011 and 2022 from 221 child healthcare centres in eight of Sweden's 21 regions. In seven of the eight regions, 100% of centres report data.The completeness of data differs between participating regions and birth cohorts. The average coverage for children born in 2021 is 71%. CONCLUSIONS: The BHVQ is a valuable resource for evaluating Child Health Services nationally, with high coverage for the youngest children. As a result of continuous improvement of the services, the possibility to follow the development of children's health in Sweden is possible through the register. When fully expanded, the register will be a natural and essential part of developing preventive services, improving healthcare for children below 6 years of age and a tool for developing evidence-based child health interventions.