Data quality of the reporting of viral hepatitis caused by work-related accidents, Brazil.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the completeness and consistency of reports describing viral hepatitis caused by work-related accidents in Brazil between 2007 and 2014.

METHODS: This is an analytical, epidemiological study evaluating the quality of data from the Information System for Notifiable Diseases (Sistema de Informação de Agravos de Notificação). Data were analyzed using absolute and relative frequencies, proportional percentage variation, and a linear χ2 test.

RESULTS: The majority of mandatory and essential variables were classified with good completeness, despite growth during the study period. The occupation and clinical form variables were classified as normal when they had less than 25.1% incomplete data. Inconsistency was considered high among different variables above 15.0%, including, for example, serologic markers with the types of viral hepatitis and age with occupation and date of birth.

CONCLUSIONS: We need to evaluate data quality periodically, in addition to train health professionals on the adequate way to completely fill out reports, because this contributes to the establishment of an efficient surveillance of communicable diseases and improves the population's quality of life.