Registration of Symptoms and Signs in Death Certificates Issued In Hospitals Affiliated with Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Iran

Data in death certificates are a basis of epidemiological studies. Since registering causes such as signs and symptoms is not informative in data processing, this research aims to determine their rate of registration in death certificates.
This study was a descriptive, cross-sectional research. The study population included all death certificates with R00-R99 codes for cause of death. Data were collected using a checklist. Chi-square test was used to calculate the significance of relationships.
The findings show that, in 11.3% of death certificates, symptoms and sign were reported as the cause of death. The use of symptoms and sign as causes of death was higher in private hospitals (33.7%) than other hospitals. The use of symptoms and signs as causes of death was 51% in the age group of over 60 years of age which was higher than any other age groups. Based on the findings, reduction in the length of hospitalization resulted in increased rate of recording of symptoms and signs as causes. Most reported symptoms and signs (50.9%) were in ill-defined and unknown causes of mortality (R95-R99).
The results of this study show that symptoms and signs are often recorded as cause of death. Therefore, it is necessary to take steps in order to improve the data of health records.