Are there sex differences in completeness of death registration and quality of cause of death statistics? Results from a global analysis

Abstract

Introduction Recent studies suggest that more male than female deaths are registered and a higher proportion of female deaths are certified as € garbage' causes (ie, vague or ill-defined causes of limited policy value). This can reduce the utility of sex-specific mortality statistics for governments to address health problems. To assess whether there are sex differences in completeness and quality of data from civil registration and vital statistics systems, we analysed available global death registration and cause of death data. Methods Completeness of death registration for females and males was compared in 112 countries, and in subsets of countries with incomplete death registration. For ..