Death certificate and acute respiratory diseases: a study of accuracy

Abstract

Background:  Acute respiratory diseases are difficult to measure and contribute to a large number of ill-defined causes of death, which affects the reliability of mortality information.

Objective:  To verify the accuracy of the definition of the underlying cause of death for acute respiratory diseases registered in the Mortality Information System of the Federal District in 2018.

Method:  An accuracy study was conducted, with a minimum sample of 331 death certificates with the causes of death according to Chapter 10 (diseases of the respiratory system — J00-J99 — according to subcategories) of the International Classification of Diseases, version 10, considering the definition of the underlying cause of death by the research team as the gold standard. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and positive and negative likelihood ratios were calculated with their respective 95% confidence intervals (CIs).

Results:  Overall, 396 death certificates were included. High sensitivity was identified to determine acute lung diseases in the underlying cause of death (82.8%, 95%CI 78.6–86.5) and high specificity (93.1%, 95%CI 77.2–99.2). The probability of the declaration shows that negative false value was low (0.2, 95%CI 0.1–0.2).

Conclusion:  Death certificates due to acute respiratory diseases showed good results for accuracy and this study encourages similar studies for other conditions.

Keywords: respiratory tract diseases; data accuracy; mortality; death certificates