title: Comparison of official mortality statistics with data obtained from myocardial infarction and stroke registers.
abstract: Two sources of information about deaths caused by myocardial infarction and stroke were compared: official statistical data obtained from the Central Statistical office (CSO), and data from the registers of myocardial infarction and stroke conducted under the POL-MONICA Warsaw Project. The completeness of the MONICA registers with respect to the CSO data was 78%, and the completeness of the CSO data with respect to the MONICA registers was 88%. The main causes of the differences were: lack of information in the registers on deaths outside Warsaw; lack of unequivocal identification markers in patients' records from different sources; and other errors in data processing. The agreement of the diagnoses in death certificates (in the CSO material) with the diagnoses in the MONICA registers was 70.4% for myocardial infarction, and 64.4% for stroke. The main cause of the disagreement between the diagnoses was a different methodological approach to the collection of data in the two information sources.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Epidemiology and Prevention, National Institute of Cardiology, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Szczesniewska
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kurjata
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Broda
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Polakowska
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kupsc
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002561:Cerebrovascular Disorders / Q000401:mortality*; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods; D003644:Death Certificates; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000401:mortality*; D011044:Poland / Q000453:epidemiology; D011996:Records / Q000592:standards; D012042:Registries; D014798:Vital Statistics