The interpretation of COVID-19 in cause-of-death statistics: a matter of causality.

Background: Mortality is an important indicator for estimating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, different registrations provide different figures and the question is how to interpret the number of COVID-19 deaths reported.

Objective: To study the role of COVID-19 in dying in order to explain the representation of COVID-19 in cause-of-death statistics.

From mono to multi-causality: Towards a comprehensive perspective on understanding death.

Cause-of-death statistics are an age-old source of information for health policy and medical research. In these statistics, the presentation of data is based on the idea of an underlying cause of death, i.e.

Risk of death due to COVID-19 among current and former smokers in the Netherlands: a population-based quasi-cohort study.

Background: Research on smoking as a risk factor for death due to COVID-19 remains inconclusive, with different studies demonstrating either an increased or decreased risk of COVID-19 death among smokers. To investigate this controversy, this study uses data from the Netherlands to assess the relationship between smoking and death due to COVID-19.

Methods: In this population-based quasi-cohort study, we linked pseudonymized individual data on smoking status from the 2016 and 2020 'Health Monitor Adults and Elderly' in the Netherlands (n = 914 494) to data from the cause-of-death registry (n = 2962).

Estimating the lifetime risk of dementia using nationwide individually linked cause-of-death and health register data.

Background: Previous estimates of the lifetime risk of dementia are restricted to older age groups and may suffer from selection bias. In this study, we estimated the lifetime risk of dementia starting at birth using nationwide integral linked health register data.

Methods: We studied all deaths in The Netherlands in 2017 (n = 147 866).

The Role of Dementia as Cause of Death: Certifiers' Opinions versus Automated Coding.

Background: Dementia is a major cause of death in many countries today. The way in which countries code causes of death determines the occurrence of dementia in statistics. The change over from manual to automated coding is accompanied by a 7-19% increase in the occurrence of dementia as the underlying cause of death.

Prevalence of diabetes mellitus at the end of life: An investigation using individually linked cause-of-death and medical register data.

Aims: Although diabetes mellitus at the end of life is associated with complex care, its end-of-life prevalence is uncertain. Our aim is to estimate diabetes prevalence in the end-of-life population, to evaluate which medical register has the largest added value to cause-of-death data in detecting diabetes cases, and to assess the extent to which reporting of diabetes as a cause of death is associated with disease severity.

Methods: Our study population consisted of deaths in the Netherlands (2015-2016) included in Nivel Primary Care Database (Nivel-PCD; N = 18,162).

The implementation of an automated coding system for cause-of-death statistics.

: The production of cause-of-death statistics requires the coding and selection of an underlying cause of death from death certificates. Nowadays, this is done manually in many countries around the world. However, automated coding systems have been available since the 1970s and more and more countries are switching from manual to automated coding.

A Novel Time Series Approach to Bridge Coding Changes with a Consistent Solution Across Causes of Death.

Revisions of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) can lead to biases in cause-specific mortality levels and trends. We propose a novel time series approach to bridge ICD coding changes which provides a consistent solution across causes of death. Using a state space model with interventions, we performed time series analysis to cause-proportional mortality for ICD9 and ICD10 in the Netherlands (1979-2010), Canada (1979-2007) and Italy (1990-2007) on chapter level.

The reliability of cause-of-death coding in The Netherlands.

Cause-of-death statistics are a major source of information for epidemiological research or policy decisions. Information on the reliability of these statistics is important for interpreting trends in time or differences between populations. Variations in coding the underlying cause of death could hinder the attribution of observed differences to determinants of health.