Table 3 Quality assessment of medical certificates of cause of death pre- and post-training in PNG (direct training strategy)
Assessment | MCCODs with errors (%) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
Pre-training (N = 948) | Post-training (N = 378) | Percentage improvement* | |
Incorrectly completed certificates (at least one error) | 86.4 | 60.6 | 29.8 |
Certificates with one error | 25.3 | 35.3 | − 39.5 |
Certificates with two or more errors | 61.1 | 25.3 | 58.59 |
Certificates with at least one major error†| 55.6 | 30.7 | 44.7 |
Certificates with minor errors only | 30.8 | 29.9 | 2.92 |
Certificates with major errors | |||
 Multiples causes per line | 16.3 | 7.9 | 51.5 |
 Incorrect sequence of events leading to death | 41.7 | 20.3 | 51.3 |
 Illegible handwriting | 4.3 | 1.6 | 62.8 |
 Ill-defined condition entered as an underlying cause of death | 39.1 | 18.7 | 52.1 |
 Additional information on external causes not available | – | – | – |
 Additional information on neoplasms not available | 4.5 | 2.3 | 48.8 |
Certificates with minor errors | |||
 Presence of blank lines within the sequence of events | – | – | – |
 Abbreviations used in certifying the death | 19.8 | 5.4 | 72.7 |
 Absence of disease time interval | 74.7 | 42.3 | 43.3 |
 Additional errors on the certificate | 5.3 | 5.1 | 3.7 |