Completeness of tuberculosis control program records in the case registry database of the state of Espírito Santo, Brazil: analysis of the 2001-2005 period.

Objective: To investigate the completeness of tuberculosis control program records for the 2001-2005 period in the case registry database of the state of Espírito Santo, Brazil.

Methods: A descriptive study using secondary data analysis. The following variables were studied: race/color; educational level, supervised treatment, sputum culture at treatment outcome, HIV status, smear sputum microscopy at the sixth month of treatment and treatment outcome.

Results: Using technical parameters of the case registry database of the Brazilian National Ministry of Health regarding the percentage of completeness of data on the reporting forms, the tuberculosis database of the state of Espírito Santo can be classified as fair to excellent. The state of Espírito Santo has 78 cities, 8 of which are considered priorities for tuberculosis control. For the variables studied, the cities not considered priorities presented better completeness of records than did those considered priorities, the exception being the variable treatment outcome, for which the percentage of completeness was comparable among all of the cities.

Conclusions: Since the cities that are considered priorities accounted for 70.2% of the total number of reports, the responsible officials in those cities should improve the quality of those reports in terms of the completeness of forms and the updating of data, which are fundamental to the reliability of epidemiological analyses. That will make it possible to plan activities aimed at the prevention and control of tuberculosis in the state.