Korean J Prev Med.  2002 May;35(2):153-159.

Accuracy of the Registered Cause of Death in a County and its Related Factors

• Chung EK
• Shin HY
• Shin JH
• Nam HS
• Ryu SY
• Im JS
• Rhee JA

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
To evaluate the accuracy of the registered cause of death in a county and its related factors.
METHODS
The data used in this study was based on 504 cases, in a county of Chonnam province, registered between January and December 1998. Study subjects consisted of 388 of the 504 cases, and their causes of death were established by an interview survey of the next of kin or neighbor and medical record surveys. We compared the registered cause of death with the confirmed cause of death, determined by surveys and medical records, and evaluated the factors associated with the accuracy of the registered cause of death.
RESULTS
62.6% of the deaths were concordant with 19 Chapters classification of cause of death. external causes of mortality, endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases, neoplasms and diseases of the circulatory system showed the good agreement between the registered cause of death and the confirmed cause of death. The factors relating to the accuracy of the registered cause of death were the doctors' diagnosis for the cause of death (adjusted Odds Ratio: 2.67, 95% Confidence Interval: 1.21-5.89) and the grade of the public officials in charge of the death registry (adjusted Odds Ratio: 0.30, 95% CI= 0.12-0.78).
CONCLUSIONS
The accuracy of the registered cause of death was not high. It could be improved by using the doctors' diagnosis for death and improving the job specification for public officials who deal with death registration.

Keyword

Cause of death; Validation studies; Registration of vital statistics

MeSH Terms

Cause of Death*
Classification
Diagnosis
Jeollanam-do
Medical Records
Mortality
Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases
Odds Ratio
Vital Statistics