title: [Reliability and accuracy of reported causes of death from cancer. I. Reliability of all cancer reported in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil]
abstract: Mortality records are often used in epidemiological studies, particularly in cancer studies. This paper aims to evaluate reliability and accuracy of cancer mortality data in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A systematic random sample of 394 death certificates was obtained from a total of 12615 cancer deaths. This sample was recoded by an independent codifier. A kappa coefficient of 0.89 (95% C.I. 0.86-0.92) was obtained to the third digit, which increases to 0.95 (95% C.I. 0.94-0.96) when restricted to the mortality list used in international publications. The positive predictive value was 95.7% for this sample. These results reveal a high standard reliability of cancer mortality records in the State of Rio de Janeiro making them suitable for use in epidemiological research.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Epidemiologia e Métodos Quantitativos em Saúde, Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 21041-210, Brasil.
authors.initials: GT
authors.lastname: Monteiro
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Koifman
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Koifman