Vital records document the birth, death, marriage and divorce of every individual. A more centralized system in the US could help public health researchers better study pandemics and disease.
Articles on Death certificate
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The cause of every death in Australia must be certified by a medical practitioner. If the cause of death is not clear, the death is reported to the state or territory coroner for investigation.
In the 19th century, ‘old age’ was once a leading cause of death, alongside the vague description ‘found dead’.
Record-keepers have a pretty good sense of how many people have died. But figuring out the cause of those deaths is a lot trickier – and that’s why reasonable modelers can disagree.
Health authorities need to bridge the gap and connect with communities to successfully identify health priorities and plan for the future.
In Africa, only four countries record more than 75% of their births and deaths. This creates an unequal system and impacts on how governments plan for these citizens.
One of the biggest problems in international development is that health statistics are badly kept in many of the countries with the most to gain. Finally something is being done about it.
Top contributors
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Senior Lecturer in Global Public Health, University of Aberdeen
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Millennium Promise Fellow and Senior Research Officer, African Population and Health Research Center
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Associate Professor of Law, Monash University
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Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs and Professor of Statistics, Virginia Tech
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Professor of Sociology and Research Associate in Population Studies, University of Pennsylvania
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Adjunct professor in the School of Clinical Medicine, UNSW