Hundreds of N.C. death certificates are filled out improperly each year. But mistakes are made during the certification of natural deaths, too. Researchers say the impact is widespread.
Errors skew death statistics, which are used to study disease.
They leave families with misleading information, and researchers without the ability to spot dangerous health trends. In North Carolina, researchers in recent years used death certificates and other medical records to find that more people on the coast were likely to die of stroke. The information will be used to study stroke risk factors. Doctors also need accurate data to determine whether experimental medical treatments are working. The federal government uses the numbers to decide which prevention issues to emphasize and where to spend millions in research dollars.