title: Reliability of cause of death coding: an international comparison.
abstract: This study evaluates the agreement of nosologic coding of cardiovascular causes of death between a Chilean coder and one in the United States, in a stratified random sample of death certificates of persons aged ≥ 60, issued in 2008 in the Valparaíso and Metropolitan regions, Chile. All causes of death were converted to ICD-10 codes in parallel by both coders. Concordance was analyzed with inter-coder agreement and Cohen's kappa coefficient by level of specification ICD-10 code for the underlying cause and the total causes of death coding. Inter-coder agreement was 76.4% for all causes of death and 80.6% for the underlying cause (agreement at the four-digit level), with differences by the level of specification of the ICD-10 code, by line of the death certificate, and by number of causes of death per certificate. Cohen's kappa coefficient was 0.76 (95%CI: 0.68-0.84) for the underlying cause and 0.75 (95%CI: 0.74-0.77) for the total causes of death. In conclusion, causes of death coding and inter-coder agreement for cardiovascular diseases in two regions of Chile are comparable to an external benchmark and with reports from other countries.
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Antini
authors.affiliation: Organización Panamericana de la Salud, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: Danuta
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rajs
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Católica de Maule, Talca, Chile.
authors.forename: María Teresa
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Muñoz-Quezada
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Católica de Maule, Talca, Chile.
authors.forename: Boris Andrés Lucero
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Mondaca
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Gerardo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Heiss
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002423:Cause of Death; D002677:Chile / Q000453:epidemiology; D059019:Clinical Coding / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003644:Death Certificates; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000401:mortality*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology