Abstract
reliability of mortality data is essential for health assessment and planning. In Brazil, a high proportion of deaths is attributed to causes that should not be considered as underlying causes of deaths, named garbage codes (GC). To tackle this issue, in 2005, the Brazilian Ministry of Health (MoH) implements the investigation of GC-R codes (codes from chapter 18 "Symptoms, signs and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings, not elsewhere classified, ICD-10") to improve the quality of cause-of-death data. This study analyzes the GC cause of death, considered as the indicator of data quality, in Brazil, regions, states and municipalities in 2000 and 2015. death records from the Brazilian Mortality Information System (SIM) were used. Analysis was performed for two GC groups: R codes and non-R codes, such as J18.0-J18.9 (Pneumonia unspecified). Crude and age-standardized rates, number of deaths and proportions were considered. an overall improvement in the quality of mortality data in 2015 was detected, with variations among regions, age groups and size of municipalities. The improvement in the quality of mortality data in the Northeastern and Northern regions for GC-R codes is emphasized. Higher GC rates were observed among the older adults (60+ years old). The differences among the areas observed in 2015 were smaller. the efforts of the MoH in implementing the investigation of GC-R codes have contributed to the progress of data quality. Investment is still necessary to improve the quality of cause-of-death statistics.
Highlights
Analysis of cause of death is essential for assessing the population’s health situation, defining priorities for public health
In Brazil, a high proportion of deaths is attributed to causes that should not be considered as underlying causes of deaths, named garbage codes (GC)
The Global Burden of Disease Studies (GBD), which is responsible for generating health estimates for several countries using standardized analytical methodology for improving data quality, has the redistribution of underlying causes of death considered as garbage codes (GC) as a step in the treatment of the mortality data to obtain more accurate information
Summary
Analysis of cause of death is essential for assessing the population’s health situation, defining priorities for public health Despite it representing the most important aspect of vital statistics for supporting actions of public health authorities, useful cause of death (COD) information is not available in many countries[1]. GCs are the ill-defined CODs or those that should not have been classified as an underlying cause Analysis of GCs says a lot about the quality of vital statistics in populations[7,10]
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