Abstract
4699 Background: Norway has one of the highest PC mortality rates world-wide. Two processes affect the quality and comparability of cause of death statistics: the information basis and handling of the information (codification process). In Statistics Norway (SN) the codification process is manual and information both from the death certificate, autopsy reports, queries to physicians and routinely collected information from the national Cancer Registry of Norway is used. To investigate the impact of SN registration routines on the Norwegian PC mortality rates we compared the underlying cause of death (UCOD) selected by SN to the UCOD selected by ACME. Methods: From the files of SN and Cancer Registry of Norway a total of 2012 Norwegian men with a diagnosis of PC and who died in 1996 were identified. Death certificates were collected from SN and recoded according to ACME specifications with use of death certificate information only. The UCOD selected by ACME was compared to the UCOD selected by SN. Age standardized PC mortality rates (World Population) were calculated. Results: In only 29 cases ACME could not select an UCOD. These cases were coded manually. Using ACME as described the age standardized (World Population) PC mortality rate in Norway for 1996 would have been 24.0 as compared to the figure of 24.8 based on UCODs identified by SN. Overall, ACME selected PC as UCOD in 1124 cases as compared to 1161 according to SN. In 1081 cases both ACME and SN selected PC as UCOD. Conclusions: On a case level there are noticeable differences between the automated coding system ACME and Statistics Norway regarding selection of PC as underlying cause of death. Overall, however, the registration routines do not fully explain the high PC mortality rate in Norway. Author Disclosure Employment or Leadership Consultant or Advisory Stock Ownership Honoraria Research Funding Expert Testimony Other Remuneration Aventis Norway
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