Investigation of ill-defined causes of death: assessment of a program’s performance in a State from the Northeastern region of Brazil
Carregando...
Data
2014-03
Título da Revista
ISSN da Revista
Título de Volume
Editor
Resumo
Objective: The proportion of ill-defined causes of death (IDCD) was persistently high in some
regions of Brazil in 2004. In 2005, the Brazilian government implemented a project in order to decrease this
proportion, especially in higher priority states and municipalities. This study aimed to evaluate the performance
of this project in Alagoas — a state from the Northeast region of Brazil. Method: We selected a probabilistic
sample of 18 municipalities. For all IDCD identified in 2010, we collected the verbal autopsy (VA) questionnaires
used for home investigation, and the Ministry of Health (MoH) form, which contains information about the
final disease and cause of death taken from hospital records, autopsies, family health teams, and civil registry
office records. The completion rate of the MoH form and VA was calculated using the number of deaths
with specific causes assigned among investigated deaths. Results: A total of 681 IDCD were recorded in 2010
in the sample, of which 26% had a MoH and/or VA3 forms completed. Although the majority of cases were
attended by health professionals during the terminal disease, the completion rate was 45% using the MoH
form and 80% when VA was performed. Conclusions: Our findings provide evidence that the training of the
epidemiological surveillance teams in the investigation and certification of causes of death could contribute
to improve the quality of mortality data.
Descrição
Palavras-chave
Underregistration, Health evaluation, Information systems, Vital statistics, Mortality, Cause of death, Sub-registro, Avaliação em saúde, Sistemas de informação, Estatísticas vitais, Mortalidade, Causas de morte
Citação
FRANÇA, Elisabeth Barboza et al. Investigation of ill-defined causes of death: assessment of a program’s performance in a state from the Northeastern region of Brazil. Revista Brasileira de Epidemiologia, São Paulo, v. 17, n. 1, p. 119-134, 2014.