Classification version used to code underlying cause of death (see Definitions)

Diseases and external causes of death are coded differently in different versions of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). For many diseases it is not possible to identify codes in different classification systems that would correspond precisely to the same disease or groups of diseases. Often the change in the trend of a certain cause-specific mortality rate may be the result of a changing ICD version or national death certification and coding practices, rather than an actual change in the mortality. This indicator shows which coding system was used for each country and year. It was introduced to allow users of the HFA-MDB67 to investigate possible effect on the cause-specific mortality indicators caused by switching from one classification system to another. The following values of this indicators were used to indicate the coding system version used to code causes of death for each country and year: 9.3 -
ICD-9 3-digit codes ;9.4 -
ICD-9 4-digit or mixture of 3- and 4-digit codes ;9.5 -
ICD-9 BTL codes (in most countries actually original
ICD-9 codes were used but the data later were converted by WHO into BTL codes); 9.2 - Special additional
ICD-9 BTL codes used for some
ex-USSR countries;1.75 - Special tabulation list of 175 causes used in some
ex-USSR countries; 10.3 -
ICD-10 3-digit codes;10.4 -
ICD-10 4-digit or mixture of 3- and 4-digit codes ; 10.1 -
ICD-10 mortality tabulation condensed list No1 (103 causes) 10.65- Tabulation list of 65 causes introduced by EUROSTAT for EU (in most countries actually the original ICD codes are used for coding death certificates but for reporting the data are aggregated into 65 causes);