Abstract

SILVA, Vera Lucia Schmidt da; SANTOS, Iná S.; MEDRONHA, Nélida Souza  and  MATIJASEVICH, Alicia. Infant mortality in the city of Pelotas, state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, in the period 2005-2008: use of death investigation in the analysis of avoidable causes. Epidemiol. Serv. Saúde [online]. 2012, vol.21, n.2, pp.265-274. ISSN 1679-4974.  http://dx.doi.org/10.5123/S1679-49742012000200009.

OBJECTIVE: to evaluate evitability of infant deaths in the municipality of Pelotas, Brazil 2005-2008, and compare results from the audit of post-investigation deaths using data from Mortality Information System (SIM). METHODS: causes of death were classified according to the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision; evitability was classified according to the 'List of Avoidable Causes of Death Due to Interventions of the Brazilian Health System for Children Under Five'. RESULTS: information from audits of deaths showed that 43.6% of those were reducible by providing proper carefor women during pregnancy; and using SIM data, 41.9% of deaths were reducible by providing adequate newborn care. CONCLUSION: evitability changes with relation to the source of data, death audits or SIM. The classification of evitability proposed by the List of Avoidable Causes of Death should only be used when detailed information of cause of death is provided.

Keywords : Infant Mortality; Quality; Access and Evaluation of Health Care; Health Services Evaluation.

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