Invalid certification of young deaths.
Necropsy reports were traced for 3928 of the 7049 Sheffield children who died between 1947 and 1979. Comparison of these reports with the related death certificates showed important differences in the underlying cause of death in 15%, even after allowing for variation in diagnostic terms and incorrect completion of certificates. Approximately one third of certificates had the underlying cause of death entered first instead of last in Part I, and in 251 (6%), the underlying cause of death was found in Part II of the certificate. There was an overrepresentation of infectious diseases and underrepresentation of malformations, deaths associated with perinatal factors, and cot deaths in the death certificates. Discrepancies were more frequent among very young children and among hospital deaths than home deaths. There was little variation in discrepancy frequency when analysed by parental occupation. A gradual decrease in the proportion of discrepancies occurred during the period studied, but this may be a consequence of a changing pattern of referral for necropsy rather than increasingly valid certification. The historical diagnoses 'convulsions due to an unknown but natural cause' and 'teething convulsions' may be analogous to the current diagnosis 'sudden infant death syndrome'.
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in ADC Online
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
