Biomaterial Database

Use of Coroner's reports for surveillance of accidental death. 1993

B P Gaffney

Southern Health and Social Services Board, Craigavon, Northern Ireland.

The objective of this study was to investigate the possibility of using Coroner's reports on accidental deaths as the basis of a surveillance system. The Coroner's reports of childhood accidental deaths in Northern Ireland over a five-year period (224 deaths) were reviewed. Outcome measures included the delay between time of death and registration of death and the usefulness of the report in assessing the preventability of the accident. The timing of Coroner's reports could facilitate monitoring of trends for particular categories of accident and allow information in the reports to be used as a basis for preventive programmes. At present, however, the reports which the Coroner uses to inform the Registrar-General of his or her findings are not of a standard format, and in many cases do not report enough detail to allow an analysis of the circumstances of the accidents which could be used to establish opportunities for prevention.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007223	Infant	A child between 1 and 23 months of age.	Infants
D007231	Infant, Newborn	An infant during the first 28 days after birth.	Neonate,Newborns,Infants, Newborn,Neonates,Newborn,Newborn Infant,Newborn Infants
D009660	Northern Ireland	The northern one-sixth of the island of Ireland - between the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea; northwest of France. The capital is Belfast.
D011159	Population Surveillance	Ongoing scrutiny of a population (general population, study population, target population, etc.), generally using methods distinguished by their practicability, uniformity, and frequently their rapidity, rather than by complete accuracy.	Surveillance, Population
D012042	Registries	The systems and processes involved in the establishment, support, management, and operation of registers, e.g., disease registers.	Parish Registers,Population Register,Parish Register,Population Registers,Register, Parish,Register, Population,Registers, Parish,Registers, Population,Registry
D002423	Cause of Death	Factors which produce cessation of all vital bodily functions. They can be analyzed from an epidemiologic viewpoint.	Causes of Death,Death Cause,Death Causes
D002648	Child	A person 6 to 12 years of age. An individual 2 to 5 years old is CHILD, PRESCHOOL.	Children
D002675	Child, Preschool	A child between the ages of 2 and 5.	Children, Preschool,Preschool Child,Preschool Children
D003334	Coroners and Medical Examiners	Physicians appointed to investigate all cases of sudden or violent death.	Medical Examiners,Coroners,Examiner, Medical,Examiners, Medical,Medical Examiner,Medical Examiners and Coroners,Coroner
D003644	Death Certificates	Official records of individual deaths including the cause of death certified by a physician, and any other required identifying information.	Death Records,Certificate, Death,Certificates, Death,Death Certificate,Death Record,Record, Death,Records, Death