Abstract
The quality of national perinatal mortality statistics was evaluated from a survey in nine maternity hospitals in Hainaut, Belgium (total births: 7862). The overall completeness of perinatal death registration was 86%. Under-registration was especially frequent in low birth weight babies. In 69% of cases, the birth weight value reported on death certificates was in exact agreement with the value in hospital records. Using detailed categories of causes, there was, in 37% of cases, agreement between the underlying cause on death certificates and the main cause identified in hospital records. Using gross categories of causes, the level of agreement was 56%. Disagreement was mostly due to the lack of specificity of the underlying cause on death certificates. The authors suggest ways to improve the quality of registration.
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Abbreviations
- ICD:
-
International classification of diseases
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The study was supported by a research grant of the “Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique Medicale” No 3.9002.85
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Hertoghe, L., De Wals, P., Piron, M. et al. Quality of perinatal death registration. Eur J Pediatr 146, 473–476 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00441597
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00441597