Cause-of-Death Data and the Most Important Sources of Their Deficiencies

Agnieszka Fihel , Institut national d'etudes démographiques / ICMigrations

The recent COVID-19 epidemics proved the importance of accurate and timely data on single causes of death. The quality of cause-of-death (CoD) data differs, however, from one country to another, even despite the application of high standards established by the World Health Organization. One of the major reasons for this are imperfect knowledge of medical doctors issuing death certificates that concerns 1) the WHO rules on the choice of the underlying, secondary and direct causes of death, 2) and statistical categories denoting medical conditions included in the WHO’s International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. The aim of this study is to investigate how the competencies of medical personnel can be improved through a training conducted on-line and in site. Participants included medical students (app. 80) and medical doctors (app. 40) in three European countries with relatively low quality of CoD data: Greece, Poland and Portugal. I identify a priori five main types of errors that can be made when filling in death certificates. In the second step, I examine the frequency of these errors among the participants before and after the training. Finally, I compare these results in light of certification practices that for each country under study are slightly different.

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 Presented in Session P1. Postercafe