American journal of preventive medicine
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Death certificates provide incomplete information on the specific drug categories involved in fatal overdoses. The accuracy of previously developed corrections for this and modifications to them was examined. Uncorrected mortality rates were compared with rates from the preferred correction models. ⋯ Failing to correct for incomplete information on death certificates leads to inaccurate counts of deaths from specific categories of drugs, such as opioids. However, relatively simple corrections are available that substantially improve accuracy.