Differentials in death count records by databases in Brazil in 2010

Abstract

OBJECTIVE To compare the death counts from three sources of information on mortality available in Brazil in 2010, the Mortality Information System (SIM - Sistema de Informações sobre Mortalidade ), Civil Registration Statistic System (RC - Sistema de Estatísticas de Resgistro Civil ), and the 2010 Demographic Census at various geographical levels, and to confirm the association between municipal socioeconomic characteristics and the source which showed the highest death count. METHODS This is a descriptive and comparative study of raw data on deaths in the SIM, RC and 2010 Census databases, the latter held in Brazilian states and municipalities between August 2009 and July 2010. The percentage of municipalities was confirmed by the database showing the highest death count. The association between the source of the highest death count and socioeconomic indicators - the Índice de Privação Brasileiro (IBP – Brazilian Deprivation Index) and Índice de Desenvolvimento Humano Municipal (IHDM – Municipal Human Development Index) - was performed by bivariate choropleth and Moran Local Index of Spatial Association (LISA) cluster maps. RESULTS Confirmed that the SIM is the database with the highest number of deaths counted for all Brazilian macroregions, except the North, in which the highest coverage was from the 2010 Census. Based on the indicators proposed, in general, the Census showed a higher coverage of deaths than the SIM and the RC in the most deprived (highest IBP values) and less developed municipalities (lowest IDHM values) in the country. CONCLUSION The results highlight regional inequalities in how the databases chosen for this study cover death records, and the importance of maintaining the issue of mortality on the basic census questionnaire.

Hospital case-fatality and mortality related to Chagas disease in Brazil over two decades

“…There was a tendency for speci c mortality to increase in areas characterised as very high deprivation (high IBP). On the other hand, the lower the municipality's IBP, the stronger the downward trend in mortality, reinforcing other evidence indicating an inverse relationship between socioeconomic status, endemicity and mortality [46,47]. It is possible that the real scenario is even more critical, given the greater coverage of death registration in the Census when compared to the SIM in poorer municipalities, with greater deprivation of material goods (higher values of the IBP) and less developed (lower values of the Human Development Index), in addition to being located in the Northeast region of the country [48].…”

“…These results rea rm the link between CD and social and regional vulnerability and inequalities [6, 15,47].…”

“…The limitations of the study are largely related to the databases used. Despite the advances, there is still evidence of different performances in the country to capture all deaths that occurred in reality, in addition to the quality of lling and investigation of DC [44,47]. Although it is recognised that from 2005 onwards the MoH, with a view to improving the coverage of the system, began a process to reduce the number of deaths with ill-de ned causes, based on the development of new computerised tools and training and/or quali cation courses for new coders, challenges persist in terms of the quality of the records [25].…”

Challenges related to records and quality of information in the Amazon

“…In the specific case of the Amazon Region, the under-registration of deaths is high 9 , 10 . The comparative study of the registration of deaths from different sources (Demographic Census, Civil Registry, and Mortality Information System - SIM) for 2010 12 shows that in almost 65% of the municipalities of the North Region, the enumeration of deaths in the 2010 Demographic Census is higher than the registration of deaths in the SIM and in the Civil Registry. The study also shows that the census data have a better enumeration of events in locations with a higher rate of deprivation and worse social and economic conditions in the North Region.…”

“…The improvement in the recording of events and the regional differentials tell only part of the story. In addition to enumerating the events, collecting additional information, especially the underlying causes of death is essential 12 , 13 , 14 . Over the last three decades, the percentage of deaths recorded as ill-defined causes in Brazil has decreased from 27.5% in 1980 to 8.5% in 2010.…”