Analysis of mortality by underlying and multiple causes of death

Abstract

Some aspects of mortality statistics based on underlying and multiple causes of death are analysed. A sample was drawn for study from deaths ocurred in hospitals using the official death certificates. With the help of additional information taken from medical records the death certificates were filled out again and compared with the original ones showing that the basic cause of death was incorrectly stated in 37.7% of the official death certificates and that there were some counterbalancing divergences. The average number of diagnosis per official death certificate was 1.9. With additional information it went up to 2.9. The longer the evolution of the basic illness, the greater the increase of the average number of additional diagnosis accompanying the basic cause. The multiple causes of death classification allowed acknowledgement of rare causes of death that very seldomly appeared as underlying causes of death. The mortality statistics by causes are not affected by the changes in the rules of death cause selection.