Evaluation of the completeness of compulsory work-related notifications recorded by county industrial center in Brazil, 2007 - 2011

To analyze the completeness of workers health problems notification fields registered in a Brazilian municipal industrial hub in the period from January 1st, 2007 to December 31st, 2011.

Descriptive study based on secondary data and composed of all records related to work (n = 2,345 ) in the National Disease Notification System, using criteria recommended by the Guidelines for Evaluating Public Health Surveillance Systems created by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The completeness of the fields present in the research and report forms was assessed by the percentage of filled fields, the Spearman correlation coefficient and graphical analysis.

In most of the essential fields it was identified a decrease in the percentage of filling (n = 18; 64%). The degree of completeness of compulsory fields was high (> 85%); most of the non-discriminated fields were 0 - 25% filled; there were variable indexes for key fields (0 - 98%). Considerable variability was observed in the completeness of the key fields, having three variables with significant negative correlation (rs = -0.9; p = 0.0347). Only one variable showed significant positive correlation.

The quality of most of the stored data was classified as regular to excellent for important variables on the design of worker health and surveillance actions. However, we recommend routine quality data assessments in workers health information systems in the Unified Health System.