Reliability of cause of death coding: an international comparison

This study evaluates the agreement of nosologic coding of cardiovascular causes of death between a Chilean coder and one in the United States, in a stratified random sample of death certificates of persons aged ≥ 60, issued in 2008 in the Valparaíso and Metropolitan regions, Chile. All causes of death were converted to ICD-10 codes in parallel by both coders. Concordance was analyzed with inter-coder agreement and Cohen’s kappa coefficient by level of specification ICD-10 code for the underlying cause and the total causes of death coding. Inter-coder agreement was 76.4% for all causes of death and 80.6% for the underlying cause (agreement at the four-digit level), with differences by the level of specification of the ICD-10 code, by line of the death certificate, and by number of causes of death per certificate. Cohen's kappa coefficient was 0.76 (95%CI: 0.68-0.84) for the underlying cause and 0.75 (95%CI: 0.74-0.77) for the total causes of death. In conclusion, causes of death coding and inter-coder agreement for cardiovascular diseases in two regions of Chile are comparable to an external benchmark and with reports from other countries.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Antini,Carmen, Rajs,Danuta, Muñoz-Quezada,María Teresa, Mondaca,Boris Andrés Lucero, Heiss,Gerardo
Format: Digital revista
Language:English
Published: Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública Sergio Arouca, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz 2015
Online Access:http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0102-311X2015000701473
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