Impact of ICD-10 Implementation on the Continuity of the Cause-of-Death Statistics: The Case of France

France Meslé, Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)
Jacques Vallin, Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)

Understanding mortality trends requires a precise analysis of the evolution of causes of death. Unfortunately, this evolution is difficult to follow because of changes in classification and coding of causes. A method of reconstruction of coherent series of deaths by cause has been developed at INED and used to convert long-term causes of death statistics into items of the Ninth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-9), for France and other countries. In France the new statistical gaps caused by the implementation of ICD-10 are all the more problematic since it was done at the same time as the adoption of the automatic coding. Thanks to a double classification of deaths which was performed on a 1999 death sample, it is possible to identify the major breaks. More difficult is to know how to deal with the latter. Attempts will be discussed here, including the use of multiple-cause information.