Accuracy of death certificates of cardiovascular disease in a community intervention in Sweden.Show others and affiliations
2013 (English)In: Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, ISSN 1403-4948, E-ISSN 1651-1905, Vol. 41, no 8, p. 883-889Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Aim: The aim was to investigate the possibility to evaluate the mortality pattern in a community intervention programme against cardiovascular disease by official death certificates.
Methods: For all deceased in the intervention area (Norsjö), the accuracy of the official death certificates were compared with matched controls in the rest of Västerbotten. The official causes of death were compared with new certificates, based on the last clinical record, issued by three of the authors, and coded by one of the authors, all four accordingly blinded.
Results: The degree of agreement between the official underlying causes of death in "cardiovascular disease" (CVD) and the re-evaluated certificates was not found to differ between Norsjö and the rest of Västerbotten. The agreement was 87% and 88% at chapter level, respectively, but only 55% and 55% at 4-digit level, respectively. The reclassification resulted in a 1% decrease of "cardiovascular deaths" in both Norsjö and the rest of Västerbotten.
Conclusions: The disagreements in the reclassification of cause of death were equal but large in both directions. The official death certificates should be used with caution to evaluate CVD in small community intervention programmes, and restricted to the chapter level and total populations.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2013. Vol. 41, no 8, p. 883-889
Keywords [en]
Accuracy, agreement, cardiovascular disease, cause of death, death certificate, re-classification
National Category
Cardiac and Cardiovascular Systems
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-83346DOI: 10.1177/1403494813499653ISI: 000330514500017PubMedID: 23982462Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-84888174958OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-83346DiVA, id: diva2:666102
2013-11-212013-11-212023-03-24Bibliographically approved