Abstract
Deaths classified as Garbage Cause (GC) are considered to be of little use in triggering public health prevention actions. Evaluate the impact of hospital research on recovering the true root cause of death. Descriptive study on the investigation of deaths with root causes classified as garbage code in ten selected hospitals with the highest number of this cause of death in the states of Rio de Janeiro (RJ) and São Paulo (SP), Brazil, in 2017. The investigation considered the patient's medical record, which contains the information collected by hospital surveillance professionals in a standardized form. 2,579 deaths with a GC and 2,116 with GC priorities. The highest proportion occurred in the 70-year-old or older group with differences in the predominant causes as a function of the life cycle. The GC reclassification was 41.9% and 93.6% of deaths investigated in RJ and SP, respectively. Deaths which had altered causes and remained as garbage code were analyzed for change in severity level, which take into account the potential impact of GC in the mortality profile. Thus, 70.7% and 73.6% of GC deaths with very high and with high level, respectively, were reclassified to lower levels. Among the garbage codes that went to well-defined causes, the ICD-10 External Causes chapter was the one that rendered the highest number of deaths. The investigation allowed to qualify causes of death and demonstrated the need for professional training on the definition of the root cause of death.
Highlights
Deaths classified as Garbage Cause (GC) are considered to be of little use in triggering public health prevention actions
This is a descriptive study evaluating the results of an investigation related to causes of death that were badly classified in the respective death certificate (DC), which occurred in selected hospitals in the states of Rio de Janeiro (RJ) and São Paulo (SP), in 2017, as a strategy to improve information on causes of death
In the RJ hospitals, of the 1,666 GC deaths, 82.8% belonged to the priority GC list with varying proportions, with the lowest percentage being 76.3% and the highest 87.4%
Summary
Deaths classified as Garbage Cause (GC) are considered to be of little use in triggering public health prevention actions. The union of ill-defined causes–including external causes of undetermined intent and accidents without further specification (WFE), and violence without specifying the instrument that caused the injury–with incomplete or nonspecific diagnoses, as well as terminal causes that do not point to the true cause of death, result in the group called garbage causes (GC)[4,5] These GC are not useful for promoting prevention actions in the field of public health, given the absence of the root cause or the specificity of diagnoses[6]. The number of deaths from ill-defined causes is related to the quality of mortality data and is traditionally used for health information systems and service evaluation purposes[2,3]. Especially in contexts where there is a reduction in the percentage of ill-defined causes, the remaining GCs have been recently incorporated into the studies and analysis of services and the quality of data on causes of death[4]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
