The Coding Causes of Death in HIV (CoDe) Project: initial results and evaluation of methodology.

Background: The Coding Causes of Death in HIV (CoDe) Project aims to deliver a standardized method for coding the underlying cause of death in HIV-positive persons, suitable for clinical trials and epidemiologic studies.

Methods: The project incorporates detailed data collection, a classification system, and a centralized adjudication process performed by 2 independent reviewers. The methodology was tested in the Data Collection on Adverse events of Anti-HIV Drugs Study , and independent reviews of causes of death were compared.