What are common sources of mortality data?

• A. Death certificates, mortality reports/surveillance
• B. Hospital discharge records
• C. Birth certificates
• D. Disease registries only

Answer: (A)

Mortality data are collected from records created to document deaths. Death certificates, together with organized mortality surveillance or vital statistics systems, are the primary source because they systematically record when someone dies and the causes of death, allowing calculation of overall mortality rates and cause-specific patterns. Hospital discharge records may capture deaths that occur in hospitals but miss deaths outside hospital and often use different coding practices, so they don’t provide a complete picture. Birth certificates focus on births, not deaths, and disease registries track particular conditions and may include mortality for those conditions but aren’t comprehensive sources of population-wide mortality data.