[Uganda project - Technoforte team] Age-based validation does not respect child DOB when mother DOB is unknown

[Abhay-Dev-Gautam]

Title

Age-based validation does not respect child DOB when mother DOB is unknown

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Summary

In the birth declaration flow, when the mother’s exact date of birth is unknown, the system allows entering the mother’s age as a numeric value. However, the current age validation does not account for the child’s date of birth, which can result in logically invalid parent–child age relationships being accepted.

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Current Behavior

• If the mother’s DOB is known, we validate that the mother is at least 10 years older than the child’s DOB.
• This DOB-based validation works correctly and prevents invalid cases.
• If the mother’s DOB is unknown, the user can enter the mother’s age using the AGE field.
• The AGE field currently only validates a static range (e.g. 10–120).

Example scenario

• Child DOB: 01/01/2000 (child is ~26 years old)
• Mother DOB: Unknown
• Mother age entered: 10

This value is currently accepted because it satisfies the AGE field’s minimum value, even though it is logically impossible for the mother to be younger than the child.

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Problem Statement

When the mother’s DOB is unknown and age is entered manually, the system does not validate the entered age against the child’s date of birth.

As a result, cases are accepted where:

• The mother’s calculated birth year would be after the child’s birth year
• Or the age gap between mother and child is less than the minimum required (10 years)

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Expected Behavior

When the mother’s DOB is unknown and the mother’s age is entered manually:

• The system should dynamically calculate the minimum acceptable mother age based on:
  • Child’s DOB
  • Minimum parent–child age difference (currently 10 years)
  • The entered mother age should be rejected if it is less than:

(child’s age at registration) + minimum age difference

Example (expected)

• Child DOB: 01/01/2000
• Child age today: ~26
• Minimum age difference: 10 years
• Minimum acceptable mother age: 36

Any value below 36 should be invalid.

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Why This Matters

• Allows biologically and logically impossible data to be recorded
• Creates inconsistency between DOB-based validation and AGE-based validation
• Can impact downstream analytics, deduplication, and data quality

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Clarification Requested

1. Is it expected that AGE fields should support context-aware validation based on other fields (such as child DOB)?
2. Is there an existing pattern or helper in the toolkit to validate AGE fields against another date/age?
3. Would this logic be better implemented:
   • At the form validation level?
   • Or at the declaration / backend validation layer?
4. Is enforcing parent–child age consistency for AGE fields an accepted requirement across OpenCRVS?

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Environment

• Core: OpenCRVS V1.9.5
• Event type: Birth
• Country configuration: Uganda
• Field type: AGE (used when DOB is unknown)

[prinzab]

@Abhay-Dev-Gautam A ticket has been created for this. Please follow it here: #11702

[euanmillar]

@Abhay-Dev-Gautam @prinzab I'm thinking that this isnt a bug after all but a misunderstanding of how the age field is meant to be used. It has a configuration.asOfDate prop which is set to child.dob. What this means is, when you use the age field because you dont know the date of birth of the parent and enter 10, the data that is captured for mothers dob is (child.dob-10 years). If the label of the field was changed from "Age of mother" to "Age of mother upon birth of the child", this would be clear and obvious.

[Abhay-Dev-Gautam]

@euanmillar Thank you so much for the clarification , changing the label would make more sense.