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© 1995 Oxford University Press

research-article

Usefulness of the Codification of Multiple Causes of Death in Mortality Statistics

A G TARDON*, J ZAPLANA{dagger}, R HERNANDEZ* and A CUETO*

*Department of Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, c/Julian Claveria s/n 33006 Oviedo, Asturias, Spain
{dagger}Central Hospital of Asturias Asturias, Spain

BACKGROUND: The codification of multiple causes of death began in the US in 1917 and systematic publication of this data started in 1984. In Spain this began in 1988, and the data from this year have been taken as the basis for investigation. They have also been studied for regional differences.

METHODS: A representative sample (595) of Spanish Standard Death Certificates (DC) was collected in Asturias for the year 1988. All were coded according to the International Classification of Diseases and a separate coding was made for each nosological entity included in the certificate (coding of multiple causes). The median, mode and the multiple cause/underlying cause ratio were also calculated.

RESULTS: More than 80% of the certificates studied contained more than one cause of death. Chronic diseases are those which are accompanied by a greater number of causes and acute diseases those which appear alone. The highest ratios appear for diseases which are ill defined and also in those which are chronic.

CONCLUSIONS: Our data show that information is lost in the production of the statistics of mortality and there are repercussions for the usefulness of these statistics.

Keywords coding, chronic diseases, death statistics, mortality, multiple causes

Revised 1 March 1995


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