TY - JOUR
T1 - Redistribution of heart failure as the cause of death
T2 - The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study
AU - Snyder, Michelle L.
AU - Love, Shelly Ann
AU - Sorlie, Paul D.
AU - Rosamond, Wayne D.
AU - Antini, Carmen
AU - Metcalf, Patricia A.
AU - Hardy, Shakia
AU - Suchindran, Chirayath M.
AU - Shahar, Eyal
AU - Heiss, Gerardo
N1 - Funding Information:
We examined vital records from decedents ≥55 years old for years 1999–2010 from states encompassing regions under epidemiologic surveillance by the ARIC study (Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, and North Carolina). We excluded decedents <55 years old (n = 8) because heart failure before age 55 typically reflects etiologies and coding practices that differ from those among older adults in industrialized countries. Multiple cause of death coding was provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the National Center for Health Statistics Vital Statistics Cooperative Program. We obtained mid-year populations for 1999–2009 from the Center for Disease Control’s CDC Wonder and obtained the 2010 mid-year population from the United States 2010 Census. Heart failure was defined by ICD-10 codes for congestive heart failure (I50.0), left ventricular failure (I50.1), and heart failure, unspecified (I50.9).
PY - 2014/4/10
Y1 - 2014/4/10
N2 - Background: Heart failure is sometimes incorrectly listed as the underlying cause of death (UCD) on death certificates, thus compromising the accuracy and comparability of mortality statistics. Statistical redistribution of the UCD has been used to examine the effect of misclassification of the UCD attributed to heart failure, but sex- and race-specific redistribution of deaths on coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality in the United States has not been examined.Methods: We used coarsened exact matching to infer the UCD of vital records with heart failure as the UCD from 1999 to 2010 for decedents 55 years old and older from states encompassing regions under surveillance by the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study (Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, and North Carolina). Records with heart failure as the UCD were matched on decedent characteristics (five-year age groups, sex, race, education, year of death, and state) to records with heart failure listed among the multiple causes of death. Each heart failure death was then redistributed to plausible UCDs proportional to the frequency among matched records.Results: After redistribution the proportion of deaths increased for CHD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, hypertensive heart disease, and cardiomyopathy, P < 0.001. The percent increase in CHD mortality after redistribution was the highest in Mississippi (12%) and lowest in Maryland (1.6%), with variations by year, race, and sex. Redistribution proportions for CHD were similar to CHD death classification by a panel of expert reviewers in the ARIC study.Conclusions: Redistribution of ill-defined UCD would improve the accuracy and comparability of mortality statistics used to allocate public health resources and monitor mortality trends.
AB - Background: Heart failure is sometimes incorrectly listed as the underlying cause of death (UCD) on death certificates, thus compromising the accuracy and comparability of mortality statistics. Statistical redistribution of the UCD has been used to examine the effect of misclassification of the UCD attributed to heart failure, but sex- and race-specific redistribution of deaths on coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality in the United States has not been examined.Methods: We used coarsened exact matching to infer the UCD of vital records with heart failure as the UCD from 1999 to 2010 for decedents 55 years old and older from states encompassing regions under surveillance by the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study (Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, and North Carolina). Records with heart failure as the UCD were matched on decedent characteristics (five-year age groups, sex, race, education, year of death, and state) to records with heart failure listed among the multiple causes of death. Each heart failure death was then redistributed to plausible UCDs proportional to the frequency among matched records.Results: After redistribution the proportion of deaths increased for CHD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, hypertensive heart disease, and cardiomyopathy, P < 0.001. The percent increase in CHD mortality after redistribution was the highest in Mississippi (12%) and lowest in Maryland (1.6%), with variations by year, race, and sex. Redistribution proportions for CHD were similar to CHD death classification by a panel of expert reviewers in the ARIC study.Conclusions: Redistribution of ill-defined UCD would improve the accuracy and comparability of mortality statistics used to allocate public health resources and monitor mortality trends.
KW - Cause of death
KW - Coronary heart disease
KW - Death certificates
KW - Heart failure
KW - Ill-defined causes of death
KW - Mortality
KW - Vital statistics
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U2 - 10.1186/1478-7954-12-10
DO - 10.1186/1478-7954-12-10
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84898888397
VL - 12
JO - Population Health Metrics
JF - Population Health Metrics
SN - 1478-7954
IS - 1
M1 - 10
ER -