ArticleBMC public health2018
Saving lives through certifying deaths: assessing the impact of two interventions to improve cause of death data in Perú.
Article in BMC public health, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Effectiveness of training interventions to improve quality of medical certification of cause of death: systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC medicine · 2020Pooled it
- Burden of HPV-associated cancers in Peruvian men: Evidence from national health data.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2026Article
- Mortality by Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia: A Regional Analysis in Peru and Ecuador.Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention : APJCP · 2025Article
- Trends in breast cancer mortality in Peru and its geographical areas from 2013 to 2022 and prediction until 2027.BMC cancer · 2025Observational
- Digital transformation of mortality reporting using an ICD-11 integrated death certificate system in Suriname.Revista panamericana de salud publica = Pan American journal of public health · 2025Article
- [Implementation of digital signatures on death certificates in Peru, 2022-2024Implementação da assinatura digital no atestado de óbito no Peru, 2022-2024].Revista panamericana de salud publica = Pan American journal of public health · 2025Article
- Exploring the potential of introducing an electronic death registration system in South Africa.Health research policy and systems · 2024Article
- Strengthening Cause of Death Statistics in Selected Districts of 3 States in India: Protocol for an Uncontrolled, Before-After, Mixed Method Study.JMIR research protocols · 2024Article
- A scoping review on the errors in medical certification of the cause of death in India.The Indian journal of medical research · 2024Article
- Causes of death among international travellers in Peru, 2017 to 2021.Journal of travel medicine · 2024Article
- Testicular cancer mortality in Latin America and the Caribbean: trend analysis from 1997 to 2019.BMC cancer · 2023Article
- Mortality trends and geographic distribution of kidney cancer in Peru: a secondary analysis.BMC urology · 2023Article
- Worth the paper it's written on? A cross-sectional study of Medical Certificate of Stillbirth accuracy in the UK.International journal of epidemiology · 2023Article
- Automated coding and selection of causes of death in Peru: a descriptive study, 2016-2019.Epidemiologia e servicos de saude : revista do Sistema Unico de Saude do Brasil · 2023Article
- Physicians' Perceptions as Predictors of the Future Use of the National Death Information System in Peru: Cross-sectional Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2022Observational
- Examining sex differences in the completeness of Peruvian CRVS data and adult mortality estimates.Genus · 2022Article
- The knowledge assessment and reducing the errors of medical certificate of cause of death with sensitization training of physicians: A quality improvement intervention study.Journal of education and health promotion · 2022Article
- The role and utility of population-based cancer registries in cervical cancer surveillance and control.Preventive medicine · 2021Article
- Autopsies and quality of cause of death diagnoses.SAGE open medicine · 2021Article
- The impact of errors in medical certification on the accuracy of the underlying cause of death.PloS one · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMortality 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.
methodsThe 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.
resultsThe 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%).
conclusionsThis 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.
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