[Potential under-registration of occupational accidents in the Mexican Institute of Social Security].

Objective: To assess the potential under-registration of work-related accidents in the Mexican Institute of Social Security.

Material And Methods: A countrywide cross-sectional study was carried out with information collected from 27 district offices of the Mexican Institute of Social Security (MISS), on workers seen at MISS emergency rooms during November 2001 because of a probable accident at work. We compared these reports to official records of work-related accidents to estimate the proportion of incomplete reports.