title: Investigation of ill-defined causes of death: assessment of a program's performance in a state from the Northeastern region of Brazil.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The proportion of ill-defined causes of death (IDCD) was persistently high in some regions of Brazil in 2004. In 2005, the Brazilian government implemented a project in order to decrease this proportion, especially in higher priority states and municipalities. This study aimed to evaluate the performance of this project in Alagoas - a state from the Northeast region of Brazil.
  
  
  METHODS
  We selected a probabilistic sample of 18 municipalities. For all IDCD identified in 2010, we collected the verbal autopsy (VA) questionnaires used for home investigation, and the Ministry of Health (MoH) form, which contains information about the final disease and cause of death taken from hospital records, autopsies, family health teams, and civil registry office records. The completion rate of the MoH form and VA was calculated using the number of deaths with specific causes assigned among investigated deaths.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 681 IDCD were recorded in 2010 in the sample, of which 26% had a MoH and/or VA3 forms completed. Although the majority of cases were attended by health professionals during the terminal disease, the completion rate was 45% using the MoH form and 80% when VA was performed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings provide evidence that the training of the epidemiological surveillance teams in the investigation and certification of causes of death could contribute to improve the quality of mortality data.
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil.
authors.forename: Elisabeth Barboza
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: França
authors.affiliation: Instituto Federal Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil.
authors.forename: Carolina Cândida
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: da Cunha
authors.affiliation: Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brazil.
authors.forename: Ana Maria Nogales
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Vasconcelos
authors.affiliation: Ministério da Saúde, Brasília, DF, Brasil.
authors.forename: Juan José Cortez
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Escalante
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil.
authors.forename: Daisy Xavier
authors.initials: DX
authors.lastname: de Abreu
authors.affiliation: Ministério da Saúde, Brasília, DF, Brasil.
authors.forename: Raquel Barbosa
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: de Lima
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, GO, Brazil.
authors.forename: Otaliba Libânio
authors.initials: OL
authors.lastname: de Morais Neto
mesh_terms: D001938:Brazil; D002423:Cause of Death; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010865:Pilot Projects; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires