Health risk early warning capability of maternal health care information system in Beijing and Shanghai

  Objective  To analyze the change in health risk early warning capability of maternal health information system in Beijing and Shanghai and to explore the method for quantitative evaluation on the capability and the feasibility of the evaluation.

  Methods  Through websites of governmental agencies, maternal and child healthcare institutions, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and Web of Science, we systematically collected government notifications and research literatures related to maternal health risk early warning issued by maternal health information systems in Beijing and Shanghai between 2004 and 2017 and then quantitatively assessed the early warning capability of the published information. Spearman correlation and linear regression analysis were used to analyze the association of the health risk early warning capability with maternal mortality of the two cities.

  Results  For the maternal health information system of Beijing during the period, only one health risk early warning about healthcare of childbearing women was issued through the system in 2011, with the variation in early warning capability index of zero from 2004 to 2010 and of from 0.09% in 2011 to 0.05% in 2017. Similarly for the maternal health information system of Shanghai during the period, only one health risk early warning about healthcare of childbearing women was issued through the system in 2016, with the variation in early warning capability index of zero from 2004 to 2016 and an index of 0.05% in 2017. The health early warning capability index was inversely correlated significantly with maternal mortality in Beijing (r = – 0.669, P = 0.009) and the index could explain 57.1% of the variation in maternal mortality in Beijing city (P = 0.002).

  Conclusion  The health risk early warning capability of maternal health information systems in Beijing and Shanghai is at a low level and the capability shows a positive impact on the health of women in Beijing city. The study results suggest that health risk early warning capability could be evaluated quantitatively.