Saving lives through certifying deaths: assessing the impact of two interventions to improve cause of death data in Perú
Abstract Background Mortality statistics derived from cause of death data are an important source of information for population health monitoring, priority setting and planning. In Perú, almost all death certificates are issued by doctors because it is a legal requirement. However, the quality of ca...
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doaj-7fd8aaba2a294deda44889a453ddaf8e2020-11-25T01:23:26ZengBMCBMC Public Health1471-24582018-12-0118111110.1186/s12889-018-6264-1Saving lives through certifying deaths: assessing the impact of two interventions to improve cause of death data in PerúJanet Miki0Rasika Rampatige1Nicola Richards2Tim Adair3Juan Cortez-Escalante4Javier Vargas-Herrera5Civil Registration and Vital Statistics, Vital Strategies, Bloomberg Data for Health InitiativeMelbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of MelbourneMelbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of MelbourneMelbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of MelbourneMelbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of MelbourneCivil Registration and Vital Statistics, Vital Strategies, Bloomberg Data for Health InitiativeAbstract Background Mortality statistics derived from cause of death data are an important source of information for population health monitoring, priority setting and planning. In Perú, almost all death certificates are issued by doctors because it is a legal requirement. However, the quality of cause of death data is poor. In August 2016, the Ministry of Health of Perú decided to make two specific interventions to improve cause of death data: to introduce an online death certification system and to train doctors in standard death certification practices. Methods The study comprised a random sample of 300 pre-intervention death certificates, 900 death certificates that were part of the online intervention, and 900 death certificates that were part of both the online and training interventions. All the deaths had occurred between January and September 2017. We used the Assessing the quality of death certification tool from the University of Melbourne for the assessment. We examined the frequency of common errors in death certificates, the frequency of any error and the average error score for each category of: age group, sex, doctor’s seniority, doctor’s speciality, level of health facility and broad cause of death. Results The average error score declined by 38% due to the online intervention and by a further 26% due to the training intervention. Improved certification practices remained after controlling for potentially confounding factors. Main improvements were reductions in the absence of a time interval (66% of certificates), incorrect sequence of causes (22%), and ill-defined conditions (13%). Conclusions This study demonstrates how the two interventions introduced by the Ministry of Health in Perú improved the correctness of death certificates. The study also provides evidence on necessary changes to the training program to address the poor certification practices that have remained after implementation of the online system.http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12889-018-6264-1Cause of deathCertificationInterventionMortalityOnlinePerú |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Janet Miki Rasika Rampatige Nicola Richards Tim Adair Juan Cortez-Escalante Javier Vargas-Herrera |
spellingShingle |
Janet Miki Rasika Rampatige Nicola Richards Tim Adair Juan Cortez-Escalante Javier Vargas-Herrera Saving lives through certifying deaths: assessing the impact of two interventions to improve cause of death data in Perú BMC Public Health Cause of death Certification Intervention Mortality Online Perú |
author_facet |
Janet Miki Rasika Rampatige Nicola Richards Tim Adair Juan Cortez-Escalante Javier Vargas-Herrera |
author_sort |
Janet Miki |
title |
Saving lives through certifying deaths: assessing the impact of two interventions to improve cause of death data in Perú |
title_short |
Saving lives through certifying deaths: assessing the impact of two interventions to improve cause of death data in Perú |
title_full |
Saving lives through certifying deaths: assessing the impact of two interventions to improve cause of death data in Perú |
title_fullStr |
Saving lives through certifying deaths: assessing the impact of two interventions to improve cause of death data in Perú |
title_full_unstemmed |
Saving lives through certifying deaths: assessing the impact of two interventions to improve cause of death data in Perú |
title_sort |
saving lives through certifying deaths: assessing the impact of two interventions to improve cause of death data in perú |
publisher |
BMC |
series |
BMC Public Health |
issn |
1471-2458 |
publishDate |
2018-12-01 |
description |
Abstract Background Mortality statistics derived from cause of death data are an important source of information for population health monitoring, priority setting and planning. In Perú, almost all death certificates are issued by doctors because it is a legal requirement. However, the quality of cause of death data is poor. In August 2016, the Ministry of Health of Perú decided to make two specific interventions to improve cause of death data: to introduce an online death certification system and to train doctors in standard death certification practices. Methods The study comprised a random sample of 300 pre-intervention death certificates, 900 death certificates that were part of the online intervention, and 900 death certificates that were part of both the online and training interventions. All the deaths had occurred between January and September 2017. We used the Assessing the quality of death certification tool from the University of Melbourne for the assessment. We examined the frequency of common errors in death certificates, the frequency of any error and the average error score for each category of: age group, sex, doctor’s seniority, doctor’s speciality, level of health facility and broad cause of death. Results The average error score declined by 38% due to the online intervention and by a further 26% due to the training intervention. Improved certification practices remained after controlling for potentially confounding factors. Main improvements were reductions in the absence of a time interval (66% of certificates), incorrect sequence of causes (22%), and ill-defined conditions (13%). Conclusions This study demonstrates how the two interventions introduced by the Ministry of Health in Perú improved the correctness of death certificates. The study also provides evidence on necessary changes to the training program to address the poor certification practices that have remained after implementation of the online system. |
topic |
Cause of death Certification Intervention Mortality Online Perú |
url |
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12889-018-6264-1 |
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