Cause-of-Death

For the purpose of national mortality statistics, every death is attributed to one underlying condition, based on information reported on the death certificate and using the international rules for selecting the underlying cause of death from the conditions stated on the death certificate. The underlying cause is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the disease or injury that initiated the train of events leading directly to death, or the circumstances of the accident or violence, which produced the fatal injury. Generally more medical information is reported on death certificates than is directly reflected in the underlying cause of death. The conditions that are not selected as underlying cause of death constitute the nonunderlying cause of death, also known as multiple cause of death.

Cause of death is coded according to the appropriate revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) (see table IV).
Effective with deaths occurring in 1999, the United States began using the Tenth Revision of the ICD (ICD-10); during the period 1979-98, causes of death were coded and classified according to the Ninth Revision (ICD-9).

Each of these revisions has produced discontinuities in cause-of-death trends. These discontinuities are measured using comparability ratios.

These measures of discontinuity are essential to the interpretation of mortality trends. For further discussion, see the Mortality Technical Appendix.

SOURCE: Health, United States

Related Links
International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision 
International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision
Comparability Ratio
Deaths/Mortality FASTATS
Death (Mortality) Data Web Page

This page last reviewed June 18, 2004