Citation

Wall MM, Huang J, Oswald J, McCullen D. BMC Med. Res. Methodol. 2005; 5(1): 4.

Affiliation

Division of Biostatistics, University of Minnesota, A460 Mayo Building MMC 303, 420 Delaware Street S.E, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. melanie@biostat.umn.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group - BMC)

DOI

10.1186/1471-2288-5-4

PMID

15655070

PMCID

PMC548504

Abstract

BACKGROUND: There is analytical potential for multiple cause of death data collected from death certificates. This study examines relationships of multiple causes of death as a function of factors available on the death certificate (demographics of decedent, place of death, type of certifier, disposal method, whether an autopsy was performed, and year of death). METHODS: Data from 326,332 Minnesota death certificates from 1990-1998 are examined. Underlying and non-underlying causes of death are examined (based on record axis codes) as well as demographic and death-related covariates. Associations between covariates and prevalence of multiple causes of death and conditional probability of underlying compared to non-underlying causes of death are examined. The occurrence of ischemic heart disease or diabetes as underlying causes are specifically examined. RESULTS: Both the probability of multiple causes of death and the proportion of underlying cause compared to non-underlying cause of death are associated with demographic characteristics of the deceased and other non-medical conditions related to filing death certificate such as place of death. CONCLUSIONS: Multiple cause of death data provide a potentially useful way of looking for inaccuracies in reporting of causes of death. Differences across demographics in the proportion of time a cause is selected as underlying compared to non-underlying exist and can potentially provide useful information about the overall impact of causes of death in different populations.

Language: en