São Paulo medical journal = Revista paulista de medicina
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Mortality measurements are traditionally used as health indicators and are useful in describing a population's health situation through reporting injuries that lead to death. The aim here was to analyze the temporal trend of proportional mortality from ill-defined causes (IDCs) among the elderly in Brazil from 1979 to 2013. ⋯ Mortality from IDCs among the elderly has decreased continuously since 1985, but at different rates among the different regions and states. Actions aimed at improving data records on death certificates need to be strengthened in order to continue the trend observed.