J Korean Med Assoc.  2018 Apr;61(4):268-278. 10.5124/jkma.2018.61.4.268.

How to write a death certificate: from a statistical point of view

• Shin HY
• Lee S

• KMID: 2409047
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5124/jkma.2018.61.4.268

Abstract

Although the enclosed rate of death certificates has steadily improved when domestic death notification to the government, the percent of well-certified causes of death is still 29th among the 35 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries. The death certificate is a medical diagnosis how the deceased died, however, it is difficult to identify the causes of death such as cardiopulmonary arrest, unknown, and death due to old age were up to about 11%. The Statistics Korea selects the final cause of death by linking administrative records such as national health insurance records and national cancer registry data. The World Health Organization's the international statistical classification of diseases and related health problems, 10th revision, volume 2 manual, provides standard forms of death certificate and guidelines for how to write death certificates. It is necessary to provide the education materials or programs to the clinical doctors such as how differentiate the concepts of the underlying cause of death which is the basis of the death cause statistics, originating antecedent cause, main condition and the direct diagnosis of the death. Statistics on the causes of death are continuously needed to improve for the people's perception of death and to upgrade the quality of health care research and policy development.

Keyword

Cause of death; Statistics; Death certificates

MeSH Terms

Cause of Death
Death Certificates*
Diagnosis
Education
Global Health
Heart Arrest
International Classification of Diseases
Korea
National Health Programs
Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development
Policy Making
Quality of Health Care

Figure

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  Figure 1 Percentage of well-certified cause of death in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries. Adapted from Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Global Burden of Disease Study 2016 (GBD 2016) data resources [Internet]. Seattle: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation; 2016 [2].

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  Figure 2 An example of the formation of a death certificate according to World Health Organization guideline. Reproduced from World Health Organization. International statistical classification of diseases and related health problems 10th revision [Internet]. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2016 [8].

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  Figure 3 The item related fatal, infant, maternal death in a death certificate. Reproduced from World Health Organization. International statistical classification of diseases and related health problems 10th revision [Internet]. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2016 [8].

Reference

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3. Shin HY, Lee JY, Song J, Lee S, Lee J, Lim B, Kim H, Huh S. Cause-of-death statistics in the Republic of Korea, 2014. J Korean Med Assoc. 2016; 59:221–232.

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9. Ministry of Health and Welfare. Enforcement regulation of the Medical Service Act Article 9 (Certificate Prescription) [Internet]. Sejong: Korea Ministry of Government Legislation;2017. cited 2018 Feb 2. Available from: http://www.law.go.kr/%EB%B2%95%EB%A0%B9/%EC%9D%98%EB%A3%8C%EB%B2%95%20%EC%8B%9C%ED%96%89%EA%B7%9C%EC%B9%99.

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