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M L Samphier

Publications and source records attributed to M L Samphier.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1989

Occupational status variations in disagreements on the diagnosis of cause of death.

Studies of occupational status-related risk factors in specific-cause mortality assume that the proportions of disagreements concerning the diagnoses of the cause of death do not vary between different statuses. This assumption was verified by the addition of data concerning the occupation of the decreased (collected at death registration) to a data set comparing the clinicians' and the pathologists' diagnoses at autopsy of the cause of death. It was found that clinicians and pathologists were least likely to agree on the diagnoses of the cause of death of non-manual workers and were most likely to agree on the diagnosis of the cause of death of skilled manual workers. These occupational status differences in diagnostic disagreements reached levels of statistical significance in the neoplasm chapter of the International Classification of Diseases. Artefactual and clinical reasons for these occupational status differences are discussed.

Cause of Death↗
PubMed1988

A possible artefactual component in specific cause mortality gradients. Social class variations in the clinical accuracy of death certificates.

This paper investigates one possible avenue of artefactual influence on the production and/or concealment of social class gradients in specific cause mortality rates, namely, the possibility of social class biases in the accuracy of diagnosis of cause of death and the systematic misallocation of certain social groups to particular diagnoses. Information on this topic was obtained by matching occupational data gathered at death registration with data on the accuracy of diagnosis of cause of death (measured by diagnostic agreement between clinician and pathologist) collected in a prospective study of 1152 hospital necropsies. Extrapolation from these data to national mortality rates should be cautious, but it appears that in the majority of the most common causes of death grouped by ICD chapter (neoplasms, cerebrovascular and digestive) social class gradients would be steeper if mortality data were based on pathologists' rather than clinicians' diagnoses. Only in the respiratory chapter would the gradient be reduced, with the gradient in cardiovascular deaths unaffected.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1985

The extent and antecedents of uncertain gestation.

The extent and genesis of uncertainty of gestation has been studied in a total obstetric population, using in all cases a best clinical estimate of gestation made according to a specific protocol. In 73.2% of patients, the estimate was assessed as certain, in 19.7% as approximate, and in 7.1% as uncertain. Uncertainty assessed in this way has several antecedents, and coding of only of these (presence or absence of a precise date for the last menstrual period) is insufficient in data to be used for research in which gestation length is to be used as a variable.

Adolescent↗