SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS OF MEDICAL CERTIFICATION OF CAUSE OF DEATH (MCCD) SCHEME IN MUNICIPAL CORPORATION OF AHMEDABAD

Background: Medical Certification Cause of Death (MCCD) Scheme is an important tool to obtain reliable and scientific information in terms of causes of mortality. In India still MCCD are registered only in 14% case of all death. The present study was conducted to assess the accuracy and completeness of the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD) forms, study the leading causes of death derived from the MCCD forms and to find out the life expectancy at birth in male and female. Methodology: A total of 7392 MCCD forms were available during one year from the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s Registrar Birth and death office and all of them were scrutinized for the completeness of the certificate and tried to find out the cause of death in which underlying cause of death was written. Data collected was analyzed using Epi-Info software (version 6.04d). Appropriate statistical tests were applied. Results: Out of total 7392 MCCD forms, 7336 (99.2%) mentioned age and 7299 (98.7) mentioned sex of the deceased person. Only 151(2.04%) forms were completely filled. The completeness for immediate cause, antecedent cause, and underlying cause was 95.56%, 66.67% and 40% respectively. Main leading cause of death in the present study was disease of circulatory system 868(29.35%), followed by Neoplasm (16.54%) and Certain infectious and parasitic disease (16.44%). Conclusion: The present study showed incompletely and inaccurately filled MCCD forms. Therefore adequate training and proper sensitization of the private and government doctors regarding the usefulness of MCCD data is required.