Frentzel-Beyme R, Keil U, Pflanz M, Struba R, Wagner G
MMW Munch Med Wochenschr. 1980 Jun 13;122(24):901-6.
In most industrialized countries mortality data are the only medically relevant complete statistics for the description of health and disease in a population. Although mortality data reflect just the opposite of the state of health of a population, specific age and sex mortality rates are important indicators of the health status of a population and beyond that for the social system, e.g. for the effectiveness of the subsystem of health services. Validation studies show that the diagnoses on death certificates are much more reliable than generally thought. Scientists must have access to information from the original death certificates because otherwise the increasingly desirable studies on the threat of environmental noxae to the population cannot be carried out.
在大多数工业化国家，死亡率数据是描述人群健康与疾病状况的唯一与医学相关的完整统计数据。尽管死亡率数据反映的恰恰是人群健康状况的反面，但特定年龄和性别的死亡率是人群健康状况的重要指标，此外对社会系统而言也是如此，例如对卫生服务子系统的有效性而言。验证研究表明，死亡证明上的诊断比一般认为的要可靠得多。科学家必须能够获取原始死亡证明中的信息，因为否则就无法开展日益受到关注的关于环境有害因素对人群威胁的研究。
