title: A comparison of death recording by health centres and civil registration in South Africans receiving antiretroviral treatment.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is uncertainty regarding the completeness of death recording by civil registration and by health centres in South Africa. This paper aims to compare death recording by the two systems, in cohorts of South African patients receiving antiretroviral treatment (ART).
  
  
  METHODS
  Completeness of death recording was estimated using a capture-recapture approach. Six ART programmes linked their patient record systems to the vital registration system using civil identity document (ID) numbers and provided data comparing the outcomes recorded in patient files and in the vital registration. Patients were excluded if they had missing/invalid IDs or had transferred to other ART programmes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After exclusions, 91,548 patient records were included. Of deaths recorded in patients files after 2003, 94.0% (95% CI: 93.3-94.6%) were recorded by civil registration, with completeness being significantly higher in urban areas, older adults and females. Of deaths recorded by civil registration after 2003, only 35.0% (95% CI: 34.2-35.8%) were recorded in patient files, with this proportion dropping from 60% in 2004-2005 to 30% in 2010 and subsequent years. Recording of deaths in patient files was significantly higher in children and in locations within 50 km of the health centre. When the information from the two systems was combined, an estimated 96.2% of all deaths were recorded (93.5% in children and 96.2% in adults).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  South Africa's civil registration system has achieved a high level of completeness in the recording of mortality. However, the fraction of deaths recorded by health centres is low and information from patient records is insufficient by itself to evaluate levels and predictors of ART patient mortality. Previously documented improvements in ART mortality over time may be biased if based only on data from patient records.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Research, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa; Leigh.Johnson@uct.ac.za.
authors.forename: Leigh F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: Centre for Actuarial Research, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
authors.forename: Rob E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Dorrington
authors.affiliation: Burden of Disease Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa.
authors.forename: Ria
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Laubscher
authors.affiliation: Aurum Institute, Johannesburg, South Africa.|Division of Infectious Diseases, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Hoffmann
authors.affiliation: Desmond Tutu HIV Centre, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
authors.forename: Robin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wood
authors.affiliation: Center for Global Health and Development, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA.|Health Economics and Epidemiology Research Office, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
authors.forename: Matthew P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Fox
authors.affiliation: Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Research, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
authors.forename: Morna
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cornell
authors.affiliation: Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Research, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schomaker
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Tygerberg Academic Hospital, University of Stellenbosch, Cape Town, South Africa.
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Prozesky
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Mtubatuba, South Africa.|School of Nursing and Public Health, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tanser
authors.affiliation: Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Research, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
authors.forename: Mary-Ann
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Davies
authors.affiliation: Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Research, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Boulle
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D019380:Anti-HIV Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000401:mortality*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D012042:Registries; D013019:South Africa / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D019380:Anti-HIV Agents
keywords: HIV; South Africa; antiretroviral therapy; vital statistics registration