Data Reliability: Comparison between Census and Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) Outputs for Kassena-Nankana East and West Districts, Ghana

Abstract

Considering the importance of reliable and accurate demographic data for development planning and the errors often associated with census data in Africa, this paper examines the level of consistency of reporting between the 2010 Ghana Population Census and the Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) for Kasena-Nankana East Municipal and Kassena-Nankana West district in the Republic of Ghana. We apply data evaluation techniques to assess data quality and adopt Test of Proportions to examine differences between the two data systems. The results show some level of consistency between the Census and HDSS data relative to age-sex distribution, crude death rate and mortality pattern. However, the HDSS data suggest relatively better reporting than the Census. We conclude that the large differences observed in some indicators need to be interrogated further to identify their sources so as to allow for improvement in quality of subsequent waves of data collection.