INTRODUCTION: Hypertension is a public health problem due to its magnitude and difficulties in its control. OBJECTIVE: The objectives were to verify the quality of death certificates (DC) and gain in information when the multiple cause of death methodology is performed, in DC of women from 10 to 49 years filled out with hypertension as an underlying or an associated cause of death. METHODS: The database consisted of 7,332 DC of the first semester of 2002 collected in the "Study of women in childbearing age, living in the capitals of all Brazilian States and Federal District". The RAMOS methodology was adopted and household interviews and hospital records were collected. With the new information, a new death certificate was filled out. Two data sets were built (DC-ORIGINAL and DC-NEW) and comparisons of the distributions of deaths according to causes of death and source (DC-O, DC-N) were done. RESULTS: Some physicians are not filling out DC appropriately. The analysis of multiple causes of death allows the attainment of much more information. Campaigns to motivate physicians are necessary to improve the quality of DCs, as well as mortality studies have to be analyzed according to underlying causes of death, and also by means of the multiple causes of death methodology.
Hypertension; Multiple causes of death; Epidemiology
