Background:

the quality, reliability and usefulness of mortality statistics, depend on the accuracy of the medical certification of death by the doctor.

Objective:

to identify the influence of the death certificate filling on the reliability of mortality statistics.

Methods:

a cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out on the influence of the death certificate filling in the mortality statistics in the health area attended by the Ignacio Agramonte University Polyclinic, of the municipality of Camagüey during the year 2017. It was studies the variables: deceased by groups of ages, sex and basic causes of death consigned by the certifying doctor and by the authors who reviewed the death certificates, health units where the certificates were made and errors detected. The 206 adult deaths in the studied period constituted the universe of study and the register of deceased persons of the statistics department of the Polyclinic, the secondary source of obtaining the data, which were processed automatically.

Results:

the general mortality rate was higher than the provincial and national mortality rate, feminine over-mortality was observed and the 2 first causes of death were malignant tumors and heart diseases. Cerebrovascular diseases before the review of the basic causes of death of the registry of deaths, occupied the seventh place and then ascended to the fifth, showing errors in the consignation of the basic causes referred above all to arteriosclerosis, senile dementia, cerebrovascular disease and diseases of the arteries, arterioles and capillaries and their subsequent coding.

Conclusions:

it is essential that the doctor becomes familiar with the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems in force, in order to make the consignment of the basic cause of death more compatible and to facilitate its correct coding.

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