This article analyzes the coverage of the Mortality Information System (SIM) in Olinda, Pernambuco State, Brazil, in the year 2008. The study involved secondary data from SIM on deaths (excluding stillbirths) in residents of the municipality and primary data from the Active Search of Deaths and Births in the Northeast and Legal Amazonia, which collected the events from multiple sources and located deaths that had not been reported to the system. Coverage was calculated as the number of deaths recorded in SIM divided by the total (SIM + active search). The study showed 94.8% coverage and detected an important contribution by notary public offices to the identification of deaths that were missing from the SIM. Of these unreported deaths, 29.7% occurred in health services, 49% occurred at home with death certificates signed by private physicians, and 25.5% had been attested by the forensic examiner's office. The method allowed calculating the coverage rate for the Mortality Information System in a municipality in the metropolitan area. Despite the low proportion of deaths missing in the system, the study detected problems with data collection and flow.
Vital Statistics; Information Systems; Mortality
