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Making sense of mortality.

L Prior

    Sociology of Health & Illness
    |June 9, 1985
    PubMed
    Summary

    Government mortality statistics on cause of death and social class are flawed at origin and distorted during processing. This challenges their utility for understanding disease patterns and social inequalities.

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    Area of Science:

    • Public Health
    • Sociology
    • Medical Statistics

    Background:

    • Government mortality statistics are crucial for public health research.
    • Understanding the social determinants of health requires accurate mortality data.
    • Existing frameworks for collecting death data may have limitations.

    Purpose of the Study:

    • To examine the collection and processing of government mortality statistics.
    • To investigate the organizational and theoretical contexts of mortality data assembly.
    • To identify flaws in medical cause of death and social class data.

    Main Methods:

    • Analysis of a 10% sample of Belfast death certificates from 1981.
    • Tracing the data flow from death registration to mortality reports.
    • Evaluating data transformations during coding procedures.

    Main Results:

    • Mortality data on cause of death and social class show flaws at their origin.
    • Coding procedures introduce further distortions, impacting the understanding of mortality.
    • Data limitations stem from technical, organizational, and theoretical weaknesses.

    Conclusions:

    • Existing death registration systems, influenced by forensic medicine, may not generate robust health data.
    • The current system is better characterized as 'policing the dead' than as a tool for health research.
    • Revising theoretical frameworks is essential for improving mortality data quality.

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