4. Teenage pregnancy data

4.1 Background to the toolkit

The toolkit is designed to be a brief guide to the local and
national data that are generally available and relevant to the
teenage pregnancy agenda. The toolkit is aimed at those
involved in policy, planning or managing work in this area.
The need to develop such a tool was identified by several
local co-ordinators in the South West region when compiling
their local profiles on teenage pregnancy for submission
to the TPU in March 2000. Several felt unfamiliar with the
availability and quality of data in this area. The profiles
compiled by local co-ordinators also revealed considerable
variation in the use of data across the region and highlighted
the need for support in this area. This led the
Regional Project Board for Reducing Teenage Conceptions
in the South West to approach the South West Public
Health Observatory for support in this area. The toolkit was
considered an important step towards obtaining a consistent
approach to the availability and use of teenage pregnancy
data.

The TPU has been keen to stress that the proposed
indicators for monitoring the implementation of the
teenage pregnancy strategy do not require considerable
data collection by local co-ordinators. 21 The TPU notes that
the key characteristic of the selected indicators is that the
data to support them are readily available or easily produced
by adapting existing data collection processes without
disproportionate cost. It is stressed that wherever possible
national data collection systems will be used in relation to
these indicators. The toolkit is not therefore designed for
the purposes of these proposed indicators. It has been
designed to assist the local co-ordinators and others in
obtaining a rounded profile of the teenage pregnancy
problem in their area.

4.2 Development and use of the toolkit

The toolkit is aimed at providing a guide to both local and
national data available on teenage pregnancy. The toolkit
builds on the guide to sexual health data produced by the
Public Health Laboratory Service in March 2000. 22 It has
been largely developed for use by local teenage pregnancy
co-ordinators and other partner agencies involved in
tackling teenage pregnancy.
The toolkit has been developed with the support of local
and national data experts from a range of agencies including
Office for National Statistics, Department of Health and
the Public Health Laboratory Service. The toolkit covers data
from a range of areas relating to teenage pregnancy
including general conception data, health services data,
social exclusion data and general survey data. These areas
have been chosen in light of the national agenda set by the
TPU and on the basis of the research undertaken by
University of Southampton into the geographic variation in
conception rates in the region. 3 , 13 The toolkit has included
data that are both generally available for local use and data
that are relevant to the local teenage pregnancy agenda.

4.3 The toolkit

The toolkit is included in the appendices of this report and
is also available on the web at the South West Public
Health Observatory's web site, which may be found at
www.swpho.org.uk .

4.4 Considerations in use of the data
There are a number of limitations that should be considered
when using teenage pregnancy data. Firstly, it should
be remembered that small numbers of events in any locality
can be erratic from year to year. This is particularly important
when reviewing data relating to conceptions in
individual wards when the numbers are generally small.
Secondly, confidentiality and suppression of small numbers
are important issues to consider when reviewing patient
sensitive data. In particular, it should be noted that to
protect the confidentiality of individuals no separate
statistics can be provided about maternities and abortions
at ward level and suppression of small numbers of conceptions
has been necessary where:

In the fewlocal authorities where this is possible, figures
foradditional wards have been suppressed.
Another important limitation of teenage pregnancy
data is that national data are easier to access on the whole
than local data. 22 This may not be always the case and local
arrangements between Trusts and local agencies may lead
to robust, timely and detailed data. Simms and Nicoll in
their guide to sexual health data stress that where local
data are used the following potential limitations should be
considered 22 :

Although the conception data provided by ONS may
help reduce many of the inconsistencies, it is important that
when local data are used to calculate rates a few simple
precautions should be considered:

4.5 Local data

Local teenage pregnancy co-ordinators across the region
have accessed and used a number of different data sources
to compile profiles of the teenage pregnancy problem in
their area. The data sources are not incorporated into the
toolkit but are presented in Appendix 3 of this report. Data
sources included in this table are subject to similar limitations
and cautions as those mentioned above.