Proportion of death certificates issued by physicians and associated factors in Korea, 1990-2002

Previous studies showed that death certification by physicians was an important predictor to improve the quality of death certificate data in South Korea. This study was conducted to examine the proportion of death certificates issued by physicians and associated factors in South Korea from 1990 to 2002.

Data from 3, 110, 883 death certificates issued between 1990 and 2002, available to the public from the National Statistical Office of Korea, were used to calculate the proportion of death certificates issued by physicians and to examine associated factors with logistic regression analysis.

The overall proportion of death certificates issued by physicians increased from 44.6% in 1990 to 77.6% in 2002 (mean: 63.5%). However, the proportion was greatly influenced by the deceased's age. In 2002, more than 90% of the deceased aged 51 or less were certified by physicians. A higher proportion was found among deceased who had tertiary education (college or higher) living in more developed urban areas.

The information regarding the cause of death for younger, well-educated deceased in urban areas of South Korea may show a higher level of accuracy. Epidemiologic research using information on causes of death may well benefit from the continually increasing proportion of death certificates issued by physicians in the future in South Korea.