Comparison of official mortality statistics with data obtained from myocardial infarction and stroke registers
Szczesniewska, D.; Kurjata, P.; Broda, G.; Polakowska, M.; Kupsc, W.
Revue d'Epidemiologie et de Sante Publique 38(5-6): 435-439
1990
ISSN/ISBN: 0398-7620 PMID: 2082448 Document Number: 351972
Two sources of information about deaths caused by myocardial infarction and stroke were compared: official statistical data obtained from the Central Statistical office (CSO), and data from the registers of myocardial infarction and stroke conducted under the POL-MONICA Warsaw Project. The completeness of the MONICA registers with respect to the CSO data was 78%, and the completeness of the CSO data with respect to the MONICA registers was 88%. The main causes of the differences were: lack of information in the registers on deaths outside Warsaw; lack of unequivocal identification markers in patients' records from different sources; and other errors in data processing. The agreement of the diagnoses in death certificates (in the CSO material) with the diagnoses in the MONICA registers was 70.4% for myocardial infarction, and 64.4% for stroke. The main cause of the disagreement between the diagnoses was a different methodological approach to the collection of data in the two information sources.