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Background In the age of big data in healthcare, automated comparison of medical diagnoses in large scale databases is a key issue. Our objectives were: 1) to formally define and identify cases of independence between last hospitalization main diagnosis (MD) and death registry underlying cause of death (UCD) for deceased subjects hospitalized in their last year of life; 2) to study their distribution according to socio-demographic and medico-administrative variables; 3) to discuss the interest of this method in the specific context of hospital quality of care assessment. Methods 1) Elaboration of an algorithm comparing MD and UCD, relying on Iris, a coding system based on international standards. 2) Application to 421,460 beneficiaries of the general health insurance regime (which covers 70% of French population) hospitalized and deceased in 2008-2009. Results 1) Independence, was defined as MD and UCD belonging to different trains of events leading to death 2) Among the deaths analyzed automatically (91.7%), 8.5% of in-hospital deaths and 19.5% of out-of-hospital deaths were classified as independent. Independence was more frequent in elder patients, as well as when the discharge-death time interval grew (14.3% when death occurred within 30 days after discharge and 27.7% within 6 to 12 months) and for UCDs other than neoplasms. Conclusion Our algorithm can identify cases where death can be considered independent from the pathology treated in hospital. Excluding these deaths from the ones allocated to the hospitalization process could contribute to improve post-hospital mortality indicators. More generally, this method has the potential of being developed and used for other diagnoses comparisons across time periods or databases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Electronic death certification was established in France in 2007. A methodology based on intrinsic characteristics of death certificates was designed to compare the quality of electronic versus paper death certificates. Methods: All death certificates from the 2010 French mortality database were included. Three specific quality indicators were considered: (i) amount of information, measured by the number of causes of death coded on the death certificate; (ii) intrinsic consistency, explored by application of the International Classification of Disease (ICD) General Principle, using an international automatic coding system (Iris); (iii) imprecision, measured by proportion of death certificates where the selected underlying cause of death was imprecise. Multivariate models were considered: a truncated Poisson model for indicator (i) and binomial models for indicators (ii) and (iii). Adjustment variables were age, gender, and cause, place, and region of death. Results: 533,977death certificates were analyzed. After adjustment, electronic death certificates contained 19% [17%-20%] more codes than paper death certificates for people deceased under 65 years, and 12% [11%-13%] more codes for people deceased over 65 years. Regarding deceased under and over 65 respectively, the ICD General Principle could be applied 2% [0%-4%] and 6% [5%-7%] more to electronic than to paper death certificates. The proportion of imprecise death certificates was 51% [46%-56%] lower for electronic than for paper death certificates. Conclusion: The method proposed to evaluate the quality of death certificates is easily reproducible in countries using an automatic coding system. According to our criteria, electronic death certificates are better completed than paper death certificates. The transition to electronic death certificates is positive in many aspects and should be promoted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After a brief presentation of the components and evolution of the French statistical health information system, this article goes on to describe the main sources of data from which public health indicators are derived. Among sources that cover the whole country, or those based on data collection that can be extrapolated to the whole French population, the article focuses on exhaustive health databases essentially those run by the administration: mortality data provided by death certificates, morbidity data collected from administrative patient management files, particularly from hospitals and health insurance organizations and other health data from compulsory reporting. It also presents other sources of data such as large national general population surveys, national surveys involving health professionals or structures, and health surveillance networks and registries. The article mentions two important problems faced by the French health statistics system, namely the linkage of different sources, while respecting legislation on personal privacy and the organisation of access to data for research, surveillance and public health purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims Little is known regarding temporal trends in mortality attributed to heart failure (HF) from a population perspective. The aim of this study was to assess the mortality related to HF as an underlying cause during the last 20 years in seven European countries. Methods and results The number of deaths with HF as the underlying cause was collected in seven European states: Germany, Greece, England and Wales, Spain, France, Finland, and Sweden from 1987 to 2008. Disease coding for HF was based on the International Classification of Diseases (ICD 9th and 10th versions). We computed age-standardized death rates (SDRs) per 100 000 inhabitants. Mean age at death from HF was also calculated for the same period. In the seven studied countries, the HF SDR decreased continuously from 54.2 (1987) to 32.6 (2008). Despite differences in the early 1990s, SDRs related to HF seemed to converge, in these seven European countries, to ∼30 deaths per 100 000 population in the near future, for both men and women. During the study period, the mean age at death increased from 80.0 to 82.7 years. Half of the deaths from HF occurred in hospital, without change over time. Conclusion There has been a 40% reduction of the SDR due to HF in seven European countries during two decades and a concomitant increase in the mean age at death from HF. We hypothesize that these results may be related to a better management of chronic and acute HF patients over the past 20 years. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Osteoporotic fractures are one of the leading causes of death in the elderly population, but mortality may have been reduced by the advances in management and prevention during recent decades. The authors analyzed the population-level impact of these fractures on mortality in France from 1968 to 2004. About 20 million death certificates registered in metropolitan France from 1968 to 2004 were analyzed. Osteoporotic fractures were identified by using a previously developed methodology. Age-specific and standardized mortality rates were calculated by site of fracture and sex, and time trends were evaluated. Associated causes of death were compared between the extreme periods of the study by the observed/expected pairs method; 440,890 (2.2%) death certificates reported an osteoporotic fracture. Osteoporotic fractures overall, particularly hip and skull fractures, declined by half during the study period, exceeding the decline in general mortality and resulting in fracture-deceased subjects being older. However, pelvis, vertebral, and rib fractures became more frequent. Associated causes of death increased with time, except for decubitus ulcers, indicating a change in the pattern of the death process. Despite a 50% decline, osteoporotic fractures still have a significant impact on mortality. The pattern of the death process has changed, with an increased role for comorbidities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: French uterine cancer recordings in death certificates include 60% of “uterine cancer, Not Otherwise Specified (NOS)”; this hampers the estimation of mortalities from cervix and corpus uteri cancers. The aims of this work were to study the reliability of uterine cancer recordings in death certificates using a case matching with cancer registries and estimate age-specific proportions of deaths from cervix and corpus uteri cancers among all uterine cancer deaths by a statistical approach that uses incidence and survival data. Deaths from uterine cancer between 1989 and 2001 were extracted from the French National database of causes of death and case-to-case matched to women diagnosed with uterine cancer between 1989 and 1997 in 8 cancer registries. Registry data were considered as “gold-standard”. Among the 1825 matched deaths, cancer registries recorded 830 cervix and 995 corpus uteri cancers. In death certificates, 5% and 40% of “true” cervix cancers were respectively coded “corpus” and “uterus, NOS” and 5% and 59% of “true” corpus cancers respectively coded “cervix” and “uterus, NOS”. Miscoding cervix cancers was more frequent at advanced ages at death and in deaths at home or in small urban areas. Miscoding corpus cancers was more frequent in deaths at home or in small urban areas. From the statistical method, the estimated proportion of deaths from cervix cancer among all uterine cancer deaths was higher than 95% in women aged 30–40 years old but declined to 35% in women older than 70 years. The study clarifies the reason for poor encoding of uterus cancer mortality and refines the estimation of mortalities from cervix and corpus uteri cancers allowing future studies on the efficacy of cervical cancer screening. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]