title: Validity and completeness of death reporting and registration in a rural district of Vietnam.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Assessment was made of the validity of mortality estimates based on data collected during 1999-2000 by quarterly follow-up visits and compared with other methods (re-census, communal death registration, and neighbourhood survey).
  
  
  METHODS
  This study was carried out within a longitudinal epidemiological laboratory in Bavi, District, Vietnam (called FilaBavi), covering a sample of 11,089 households with 51,024 inhabitants. Deaths within FilaBavi during 1999-2000 were collected by four methods and compared: quarterly household follow-ups, the re-census carried out in 2001, the Commune Population Registration System (CPRS), and a neighbourhood survey.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Within these four methods, a total of 471 deaths were detected in the FilaBavi sample. Quarterly household follow-ups detected 470 deaths (99.8%). The re-census missed 19 deaths, of which eight were infants, and two-thirds of the missed deaths fell in 1999. The CPRS missed 89 cases (19%), the majority being infant and elderly deaths. The neighbourhood survey over-reported deaths.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Quarterly follow-ups were the best method for death registration. The re-census approach was less complete, with problems of recall bias. The completeness and quality of death registration by CPRS was low, especially for infant and elderly mortality.
authors.affiliation: UongBi General Hospital, Uong Bi, Vietnam. huyub@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Tran Quang
authors.initials: TQ
authors.lastname: Huy
authors.forename: Nguyen Hoang
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Long
authors.forename: Dinh Phuong
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Hoa
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Byass
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ericksson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D019352:Censuses; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003644:Death Certificates; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007226:Infant Mortality / Q000639:trends; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality / Q000639:trends; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D012042:Registries; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D017678:Sex Distribution; D014744:Vietnam / Q000453:epidemiology