Journal Article Epublish 29 citations
PubMed: 31800857 DOI: 10.1590/1980-549720190005.supl.3
Data for health: impact on improving the quality of cause-of-death information in Brazil.
Rev Bras Epidemiol 22Suppl 3(Suppl 3):e19005.supl.3
Authors: Maria Fatima Marinho, Elisabeth Barboza França, Renato Azeredo Teixeira, Lenice Harumi Ishitani, Carolina Cândida da Cunha, Mayara Rocha Dos Santos, Ashley Frederes, Juan José Cortez-Escalante, Daisy Maria Xavier de Abreu
Affiliations
- Instituto de Estudos Avançados, Universidade de São Paulo - São Paulo (SP), Brasil.
- Programa de Pós-graduação em Saúde Pública, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais - Belo Horizonte (MG), Brasil.
- Grupo de Pesquisas em Epidemiologia e Avaliação em Saúde, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais - Belo Horizonte (MG), Brasil.
- Vital Strategies - New York (NY), Estados Unidos.
- Organização Pan-Americana da Saúde, Organização Mundial da Saúde - Brasília (DF), Brasil.
- Núcleo de Educação em Saúde Coletiva, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais - Belo Horizonte (MG), Brasil.
Abstract
INTRODUCTION
Knowing the number of deaths and their causes is relevant information for public health managers. However, the cause of death is often classified with codes that are not useful for mortality analysis, called garbage codes (GC).
OBJECTIVE
To describe and evaluate the impact of investigation of the underlying cause of poorly classified deaths on death certificates in 2017.
METHODS
Based on a standardized protocol, GC deaths from 60 municipalities were investigated, mainly in hospital records and autopsy services. Managers at the state level of the Mortality Information System also developed procedures to improve the classification of causes of death, with the consequent adherence of other municipalities (n = 4022). This made it possible to compare the results of GC research between these two groups of municipalities.
RESULTS
In the country, among the 108,826 GC investigated in 2017, 48% were reclassified to specific causes. In the 60 focus municipalities, 58% of the 35,366 investigated deaths from GC were reclassified. After the intervention, the proportion of deaths classified as GC decreased by 11% in the country and 17% in the municipalities.
DISCUSSION
The research in hospital records enabled almost half of the deaths from GC investigated to be reclassified. This is the first study to investigate GC in hospital records of more than 100,000 deaths. The 60 cities targeted by the intervention had better results than the other cities.
CONCLUSION
The intervention proved to be an appropriate initiative to improve the quality of information on cause of death and should be encouraged.
MeSH
Hospital Records, Epidemiology, Cause Of Death, Research, Records, Cities
Cited by
- Socioeconomic, Disease Burden, Physical Functioning, Psychosocial, and Environmental Factors Associated With Mortality Among Older Adults: The Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSI-Brazil). J Aging Health, 2023
- Changes in the quality of cause-of-death statistics in Brazil: garbage codes among registered deaths in 1996-2016. Popul Health Metr, 2021
- Garbage codes as the underlying cause of death: a cross-sectional study, state of Rio de Janeiro, 1998-2023. Epidemiol Serv Saude, 2026
- Covid Adult Mortality in Brazil: An Analysis of Multiple Causes of Death. Front Public Health, 2022
- Adolescent suicide trends in Brazil (2000-2022): An ecological analysis by sex, age, and suicide methods. PLoS One, 2025
- Premature mortality due to noncommunicable diseases in Brazilian capitals: redistribution of garbage causes and evolution by social deprivation strata. Rev Bras Epidemiol, 2023
- Coverage of fluoride data in water supply systems using the R software. Rev Saude Publica, 2022
- Addressing under-registration in Chagas disease mortality: insights from the SaMi-Trop and REDS cohorts. Rev Inst Med Trop Sao Paulo, 2025