Abstract

ZACCA PENA, Eduardo; GRAN ALVAREZ, Miriam A; MARTINEZ MORALES, Miguel A  and  FERNANDEZ VIERA, María R. Quality of mortality data in Cuba according to quantification of unspecific causes of death. Rev Cubana Salud Pública [online]. 2010, vol.36, n.2, pp. 102-108. ISSN 1561-3127.

Introduction Low quality of mortality data leads to confusion and risk for social management in health. Objectives To assess the quality of mortality data in Cuba through quantification of unspecific basic causes of death classified according to five groups of undesirable or silent codes. Methods Descriptive study comprising the universe of death certificates recorded in the 1989-2008 period. Results In 7.2 % of certificates, the basic cause of death was encoded by using the codes included in the groups 1 to 4; a fifth group of unspecific causes of death was considered, which increased the percentage to 9.8. Group 3 comprising the circulatory system diseases exhibited the greatest contribution followed by group 1 including ill-defined causes where the tendency to report rose. Hypostatic bronchopneumonia accounted for 35.4 % of the group 5 certificates, followed by renal failure and pulmonary embolism. Conclusions The frequency of unspecific causes of death reports is low in Cuba, which speaks for the good quality of statistical mortality information. The code groups are feasible for their use as classification tools. It is recommended to update knowledge of physicians on how to fill out death certificates, and at the same time, to improve the requirements and standardization of these processes.

Keywords : Quality of mortality data; Cuba.

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