Physicians’ knowledge and practices in death certificate completion in the Kingdom of Bahrain

Abstract AR

Background : The high percentage of ill-defined causes of death has always been a problem in Bahrain.

This affects the quality of vital statistics and misguides policy makers when prioritizing heath problems and allocating resources in disease prevention and control.

Objectives : The objectives of the study were to assess the knowledge and practices of physicians in the completion of death certificates at Salmaniya Medical Complex (SMC).

Methods : The study group consisted of a cross-section of physicians at SMC.

A simple random sample of 204 physicians was selected and a self-administered questionnaire, whose reliability was 0.7 based on Cronbach’s Alpha, was distributed.

Results : The majority (91.3 %) had MBBS as a qualification and 62.9 % graduated in the year 2000 or in subsequent years.

Forty-eight percent of the physicians had experience of 5 years or less and 51.1 % were internal medicine specialists.

Seventy two percent of the respondents were unaware of the death certificate completion guidelines and 97.2 % did not know the coding system used for the causes of death in Bahrain.

Based on the criteria used for assessment of the respondents’ performance levels in completing death certificates, it was observed that 83.1 % achieved a suboptimal level.

Moreover, 81 % of the physicians had not received any formal training in this regard during their practice.

Conclusion : Physicians in SMC lack adequate knowledge, training and experience in completing death certificates.

The accuracy of death certificates in SMC would improve if the process of death certification were revised in light of these factors, and that physicians received appropriate training to complete death certificates.