Iranian Journal of

Background & Objectives: There is little doubt about the importance of accurate statistics and reliable information in the promoting community health and optimizing health care. Therefore, the existence of a correct, accurate and up to date database is an absolute necessity. Accurate identification of the cause in death certificates can make an invaluable contribution to the development of such a database. The purpose of this research was to assess the current defects and shortcomings in death certificates and to evaluate the degree of agreement between the diagnoses recorded in hospital files those figuring on death certificates.
Methods: This was an analytic cross-sectional study. In this survey of 659 medical records of dead patients in Loghman Hospital, during 2005, 290 medical records were selected using a systematic sampling method. The selection of these records were based on record numbers in the archives and involved the extraction of the following data: the physician's field of specialty, the patient's identity, code for the main diagnosis, the code for the external cause on the admission form, and the code for the cause of death on the death (as defined in ICD-10) was recorded. The agreement between primary and final diagnoses and also the agreement between final diagnosis and the cause of death were assessed in relation with the physician's specialty using Fisher's Exact Test. Overall agreement between different diagnoses was measured using the kappa statistic.
Results: The degree of agreement between primary and final diagnosis was very good (k = 0.83) and agreement between final diagnosis and cause of death was excellent (k = 0.95). Fisher's exact test showed that agreement between primary and final diagnoses and between final diagnoses and cause of death doesn't depend on the physician's specialty (in both cases p>0.01). In 62% percent of the cases death had occurred without interference from an external cause. Among the 38% in which there was an external cause, 21% involved poisoning with suicidal intent, 12% were due to accidental poisoning, 4% were motor accidents, and 1% were due to other reasons.
Conclusions: There was a high degree of agreement between different diagnoses in some specialties, while didn't observe such agreement in other specialties. Since accurate diagnosis helps in identifying the cause of death and death information is an important indicator of health at community level, we recommend that physicians pay greater attention to accurate recording of the cause of death. This will make it possible to draw meaningful comparisons between the causes of death in Iran and those in other countries.

Background & Objectives: To adopt appropriate policies and strategies to maintain, preserve, and promote health, accurate information and indicators are required. In this study, the years of life lost due to premature death, which is considered one of the indicators of prioritization of health problems, was calculated and compared with other countries.

Methods: This study was an applied cross-sectional investigation. We use death registry data of the Province of Qazvin and population estimation from the Statistical Center of Iran from 2004- 2008 and a standard life table. We calculated YLL and YLL rates by age, sex and cause of death.

Results: The leading cause of YLL (premature death) in different age groups in the years 2004-2008 (based on ICD10) showed that the most common causes of death in the neonatal period were perinatal disorders, congenital anomalies, and chromosomal disorders. The leading causes of death in the age group 5-14 years were unintentional injuries and in the age group 15-49 years were unintentional injuries and cardiovascular diseases. The main causes of death in the age group 50-64 years were cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and unintentional injuries.

Conclusion: The leading causes of premature death in the Province of Ghazvin were unintentional injuries, cardiovascular diseases, perinatal disorders, and cancers. Several causes are preventable by lifestyle modifications such as reducing the tobacco use, increasing physical activity, and reducing stress.

Background and Objectives: By identifying the causes of death, interventions can be designed and implemented to reduce the risk factors of different diseases. The aim of this study is to determine the trend of ten leading causes of death in the Islamic Republic of Iran in 2011.

Methods: The study population comprised all deaths recorded in the death registration system of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MOHME) from 2006 to 2011. The data related to causes of death reviewed and modified in terms of quality, underreporting of deaths, and garbage codes using the Global Burden of Disease study methods. Finally, the data were analyzed by sex and age groups.

Results: The leading causes of death were cardiovascular diseases (46.12%), cancers and tumors (13.63%) and unintentional injuries (11.55%) in 2011. The 10 leading causes of death in the general population were myocardial infarction, stroke, transportation-related accidents; blood pressure induced heart disease, other cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, chronic pulmonary and bronchial diseases, gastric cancer, other heart diseases and renal failure.

Conclusion: Deaths from non-communicable diseases still account for a large proportion of total deaths. According to the Heath System Reform Plan in Iran and the need for new interventions, it is very important to register the exact causes of death to design service packages and also evaluate the success rate of ongoing interventions.