[Factors associated with quality of work accident records in Brazil's Mortality Information System]

This study aimed to identify factors associated with the quality of fatal work accident records in the Brazilian Mortality Information System in individuals 18 to 65 years of age from 1998 to 2013. The quality of the record of possible causal relationship between accidents and the work , a field that appears on death certificates and is exclusive to accidents among external causes, was analyzed with two variables: (1) record "ignored" (R-IGN, yes/no); (2) missing or inconsistent records (R-AUS, yes/no). A total of 665,531 deaths were located, of which 67.7% of the records showed poor quality. Factors associated with record "ignored" were: male sex; white skin color; schooling less than university; non-blue-collar workers or non-farmers; death certificate issued by the Forensic Medical Office (IML); Southeast and Northeast regions of the country; and death in hospital. Missing or inconsistent records were associated with: age greater than 34 years; non-white skin color; no schooling; all regions of Brazil except the Southeast; death in hospital or at home; police report as the source of information; and death certificate issued by the IML. The factors independently associated with poor quality of completion of the field included individual dimensions, source issuing the death certificate, place of death, and geographic variables. The findings reveal the need to improve the quality of death records in hospitals, the IML, and police reports, besides training and supervising teams throughout Brazil.