A study of multiple causes of death in California

Abstract

Exploratory work has been carried out by the California State Department of Public Health in studying the multiple causes and conditions reported on a 50 per cent sample of California death certificates for 1955. Thus far, the data summarized show that there is a great deal of information about specific conditions in the medical certification of death which is not part of the usual tabulations of deaths by underlying cause. About 64 per cent of the certificates report conditions in addition to the underlying cause. The data also show that there is wide variation in the relative frequency with which specific conditions are reported as the underlying cause or in conjunction with other causes. Limitations and possible uses of the data in epidemiologic studies have been discussed. Causes reported with diabetes on this sample of death certificates were presented as indicating possible relationship of certain causes to diabetes. The diabetes multiple cause information was used to show frequency and distribution of diabetes in the 1955 population of California decedents. These data give more information on the distribution of this disease than is given by the usual mortality data based upon underlying cause.