Quality of Death Certification in Colombia, 1997-2016

Objective: To update the indicators of quality of overall death certification and quality of cancer death certification in Colombia. Methods: A descriptive analysis was performed with the official mortality databases of DANE for 2012-2016 and 1997-2016 including indicators related with general quality of death certification and with cancer death certification. Departmental indicators and independent geographic units were described for the areas with population-based cancer registries: Bucaramanga Metropolitan Area, Cali, Manizales, and Pasto.Results: The improvement in the quality of mortality certification has been continuous and uninterrupted. The two causes that mostly affected the quality of overall certification were deaths certified as ill-defined signs, symptoms and conditions and ill-defined cardiovascular deaths. There were gains in the quality of deaths overall from 85.5% (1997) to 95.2% (2016) and cancer deaths from 87.6% (1997) to 94.0% (2016). The quality of cancer certification was affected by the combination of lack of medical certification and deaths from poorly defined site cancers. Conclusion: The mortality quality in Colombia has been improving over time and the impact of quality on cancer estimates is small, although regional differences exist. The quality of certification of overall and cancer mortality in cities where population-based cancer registries exist in Colombia was good and generally exceeds the national average.