Completeness of mortality reports in the vital statistics system in the Colombian Orinoquia, 2017

Estimate the integrity, in terms of completeness, of the mortality records in the vital statistics information system of the Orinoquia and its departments. A descriptive study was carried out, with a secondary source of information, from the records of non-fetal deaths reported in the vital statistics systems of each department, using methods of distribution of the mortality of Brass, Preston-Coale, Hill and Bennet-Hourichi to estimate the integrity of the records. Completeness was found in the mortality records of women and men (≥95%) in Meta, and in the men of Orinoquia and Arauca (≥95%), in contrast to the records of the rest of the territorial units, where under-registration is presented. Both demographic dynamics and migration influenced the results obtained from the integrity of the mortality records, therefore, also in the selection of the most appropriate method to estimate integrity; when the population is neither stable nor closed, methods based on two censuses with specific growth rates and migration adjustment should be applied; if there is no information on migration, the Hill method is recommended.