© 1973 Oxford University Press
review-article |
Registers and Registries: A Review
1 Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Social Medicine, St. Thomas's Hospital Medical School London S. E. I, England
This review attempts an examination of the types of registers in existence, the objectives of these, and some assessment of the success with which these are met. Registers and registries set up for specific purposes are discussed, but not the routine collection of morbidity data from whole populations. Preventive, disease specific, treatment, after care and at risk registers are discussed, as well as registers of skills, resources, specific information and those used for prospective studies. A register is justified if it can be shown that it is designed to answer questions which are worth answering, which have not been answered before and which cannot be answered in any other way.