Abstract
Background
Suicide represents an important public health problem in the world. Considered a complex phenomenon it is associated with social, biological and demographic factors. The quality of the data registered in the Death Certificate is fundamental to know the magnitude of this problem and subsidizes the construction of epidemiological indicators that contribute to the efficiency of health management.
Objective
To analyze the evolution of the completeness of suicide records in the mortality information system (SIM) of the state of Pernambuco, between 1996 and 2015.
Method
The proportion of completeness of the death certificate variables was calculated. For the analysis of the completeness trend, the Joinpoint Regression model was used.
Results
There was a tendency to increase the completeness of the variables analyzed, with an emphasis on “race/color”, “marital status”, and “education level”, with an increase of more than 60%.
Conclusion
Analysis of temporal trends showed an improvement in the filling of suicide data into the SIM. However, the challenge remains to reach less than 5% incompleteness across all variables. The assessment of the completeness of suicide records in the SIM is relevant for contributing to the suicide surveillance system and for the improvement of vital statistics related to external causes.
Keywords:
external causes; suicide; information systems; vital statistics; death certificate
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