[Reliability of dengue mortality data in two national health information systems, Brazil, 2000-2005]

We analyze the crude and adjusted reliability of dengue mortality data from the Notifiable Diseases Information System and the Mortality Information System in Brazil from 2000 to 2005. An observational, cross-sectional, descriptive epidemiological study was conducted. Overall crude agreement and chance-adjusted agreement (kappa index) over the study period were 99.9% and 19.6%, respectively. In the year with the most dengue cases (2002), these values were 99.9% and 28.2%, respectively. The proportion of concordant dengue deaths by State varied from 0% to 33%, and the Central-West region showed the highest median. We discuss the importance of integrating and continuing to analyze health information systems and recommend improving and increasing the use of these systems for appropriate public health evaluations.