Assessment of the Data Quality of Cause of Death Registration in Iranian Hospitals in 2016

A large proportion of the data of cause of death is registered in hospitals in Iran. Assessment of the death data can help to identify the problems of cause of death registration system and improve it. Therefore, this study was conducted to review the quality of cause of death registration in Iranian hospitals in 2016.

All hospital deaths in 2016 were reviewed and classified by age group and sex using the Ministry of Health’s death registration system. Analysis of Causes of National Deaths for Action (ANACONDA) was used to evaluate the quality of the data of cause of death.

About 24% of the recorded hospital deaths were assigned to garbage code categories. The highest percentage of this group was seen in the age group over 70 years old and the highest percentage of well-defined causes of death was seen in the age group below one year. Moreover, among the five groups of garbage code causes of death, the group with insufficient details of the cause of death based on ICD classification had the highest percentage in all age groups.

Since a substantial proportion of the causes of deaths registered in the Iranian hospitals are categorized in the garbage code categories and cannot be used for planning and health policy making, it is necessary to design a comprehensive plan to implement interventions such as implementation of process evaluation programs and training programs for physicians and coders.