Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Information on death certificates: cause for concern?

D S James1, A D Bull

  • 1Department of Forensic Pathology, University of Sheffield.

Journal of Clinical Pathology
|March 1, 1996
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Response to Grzybowski and Justynska.

Eye (London, England)·2013
Same author

Response to comment on: how common is inflammatory marker-negative disease in giant cell arteritis?

Eye (London, England)·2013
Same author

How common is inflammatory marker-negative disease in giant cell arteritis?

Eye (London, England)·2012
Same author

Fibre mapping--a case study. A comment.

Science & justice : journal of the Forensic Science Society·2006
Same author

Subdural haemorrhage sustained in a baby-rocker? A biomechanical approach to causation.

Forensic science international·2002
Same author

The potential and limitations of utilising head impact injury models to assess the likelihood of significant head injury in infants after a fall.

Forensic science international·2001
Same journal

Defining biochemical, pathological and molecular factors prognostic in terms of disease control and survival in high-grade extremity soft tissue sarcoma: a scoping review.

Journal of clinical pathology·2026
Same journal

MILGDF: a multi-task, instance-level supervised model for oral squamous cell carcinoma integrating local-global attention and dynamic decision fusion.

Journal of clinical pathology·2026
Same journal

Paediatric B-lymphoblastic leukaemia with low peripheral blasts: a potential diagnostic pitfall.

Journal of clinical pathology·2026
Same journal

MRI-targeted versus systematic needle core biopsies in prostate cancer: a patient-based analysis of potential diagnostic and biologic underestimation.

Journal of clinical pathology·2026
Same journal

Basal plasmacytosis and eosinophilia for distinguishing inflammatory bowel disease from gastrointestinal tuberculosis on mucosal biopsy.

Journal of clinical pathology·2026
Same journal

Assay-dependent variability in free thyroxine (FT4): differential interference related to immunoassay design in a patient with subclinical hypothyroidism.

Journal of clinical pathology·2026
See all related articles

Doctors frequently fail to provide adequate details on death certificates, particularly for malignant diseases. This impacts mortality statistics and highlights concerns regarding certification standards.

Area of Science:

  • Medical Certification
  • Public Health Statistics
  • Pathology

Background:

  • Accurate death certification is crucial for public health surveillance.
  • International Classification of Disease (ICD) codes require specific details for accurate classification.
  • Previous studies suggest variability in the quality of information provided on death certificates.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the completeness of information on death certificates.
  • To assess the accuracy of cause-of-death reporting, especially for malignant diseases.
  • To identify areas for improvement in medical certification practices.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of consecutive death certificates for malignancy, pneumonia, cerebrovascular events, and renal failure.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Comparison of certificate information with International Classification of Disease (ICD) categories.
  • Review of clinical notes and laboratory data to verify histological diagnoses.

    • Main Results:

    • Histological diagnoses were available in 79.1% of malignancy deaths but recorded on only 23.6% of certificates.
    • Specific tumor sites were poorly detailed (e.g., large bowel 22/36, lung 1/35, stomach 0/18).
    • Causative organisms for pneumonia (4/330) and hemorrhage details for cerebrovascular events were rarely recorded.

    Conclusions:

    • Doctors consistently fail to provide sufficient detail on death certificates.
    • Incomplete data compromises mortality statistics and raises concerns about certification quality.
    • Improvements may involve enhanced training and pre-registration screening of certificates.