Volume 45 - Article 11 | Pages 345–360
Using multiple cause of death information to eliminate garbage codes
By Agnieszka Fihel, Magdalena Muszyńska-Spielauer
Abstract
Background: International comparisons of mortality largely depend on the quality of data. With more than 20% of deaths annually assigned to ill-defined cardiovascular conditions, the mortality level due to well-defined causes of death is under-registered in Poland.
Objective: We aim to reclassify cardiovascular garbage codes (GCs) into well-defined causes based on multiple causes of death (MCoD) data and to approximate mortality levels due to well-defined causes of death in Poland. We examine the usefulness of the MCoD approach for correcting low-quality data on causes of death.
Methods: Based on the unique MCoD dataset for Poland, death counts due to cardiovascular GCs were reassigned to well-defined underlying causes in two steps: (1) manually for death records that included MCoD information constituting a logical chain of conditions leading to death and (2) with coarsened exact matching for the remaining death records. Age-specific and age-standardised death rates for large groups of causes were calculated before and after redistribution and compared to those of other Eastern European countries with relatively good data quality.
Results: Of deaths originally assigned to cardiovascular GCs, 86,856 were reclassified, mostly to well-defined cardiovascular diseases, cancers, endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases, and respiratory diseases. The age-standardised death rate due to well-defined ischaemic heart diseases increased by 43%, and the rate due to cerebrovascular diseases by 22%. Cardiovascular mortality structure by large groups of causes became similar to the structure registered in other Eastern European countries characterised by a low prevalence of GCs.
Conclusions: Coarsened exact matching performs relatively well when abundant MCoD information is available and enhances the comparability of cause-of-death data between countries.
Contribution: Redistribution of GCs improves the quality of cause-of-death data and enhances their comparability between countries.
Author's Affiliation
- Agnieszka Fihel - Uniwersytet Warszawski, Poland EMAIL
- Magdalena Muszyńska-Spielauer - Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, Austria EMAIL
Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research
The direct and indirect impact of international migration on the population ageing process: A formal analysis and its application to Poland
Volume 38 - Article 43
Minor gradient in mortality by education at the highest ages: An application of the Extinct-Cohort method
Volume 29 - Article 19
Women’s employment and union dissolution in a changing socio-economic context in Russia
Volume 18 - Article 6
Migration and union dissolution in a changing socio-economic context: The case of Russia
Volume 17 - Article 27
Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research
Excess mortality associated with HIV: Survey estimates from the PHIA project
Volume 51 - Article 38
| Keywords:
excess mortality,
HIV/AIDS,
mortality
A Bayesian model for age at death with cohort effects
Volume 51 - Article 33
| Keywords:
age at death,
Bayesian approach,
cohort effects,
Italy,
mortality
Cash transfers and fertility: Evidence from Poland’s Family 500+ Policy
Volume 51 - Article 28
| Keywords:
cash transfer,
family demography,
low fertility,
Poland,
public policy
On the relationship between life expectancy, modal age at death, and the threshold age of the life table entropy
Volume 51 - Article 24
| Keywords:
Gompertz law,
life expectancy,
lifespan variation,
longevity,
mode,
mortality
The role of sex and age in seasonal mortality – the case of Poland
Volume 51 - Article 17
| Keywords:
mortality,
Poland,
seasonality,
sex differences
Cited References: 22
Download to Citation Manager
PubMed
Google Scholar