SCDHEC Home page

SCAN Death Tables


Comparability
Fetal Death
Infant Death
Maternal Death
Medical Certification of Death
Multiple Cause of Death
Neonatal Death
Occurrence Data
Perinatal Death
Postneonatal Death
Race
Rate Calculations with Small Numbers
Residence Data
Underlying Cause of Death
Variable Breakdown

The following link shows a listing of table variables and associated characteristics when generating a table.

Animated Formulas

The following link shows the formulas used to calculate rates with examples.

Cause of Death Breakdown

The following link show the relationship of death categories when trying to locate a specific health event from the general category listing when generating a table.





Comparability - are ratios used so that rates from different ICD revisions years can be compared as trends. Multiply prior revision (ie, ICD-9) rates by the comparability ratio. This resulting number is comparable to current revision (ie, ICD-10) rates. Table 1 on page 22 of NCHS's Comparability of Causes of Death from ICD-9 to ICD-10 (PDF file) contains estimated comparability ratios for the 113 causes of death which may be underlying causes of death.

Fetal Death - Death prior to the complete expulsion or extraction from its mother of a product of human conception, irrespective of the duration of pregnancy; the death is indicated by the fact that after such expulsion or extraction, the fetus does not breathe or show any other evidence of life, such as beating of the heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles (Definition recommended by World Health Organization in 1950). A fetal death is required to be reported if the fetus has completed or passed the twentieth week of gestation or weighs 350 grams or more (Weight criteria effective in 1978). Vital Statistics Laws and Regulations 61-19: Vital Statistics, Section 21(a). Heartbeats are to be distinguished from transient cardiac contractions; respirations are to be distinguished from fleeting respiratory efforts or gasps.

Infant Death - Death of a live born infant under one year of age.

Maternal Death - Death of a woman whose cause of death is assigned to Complications of Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Puerperium(Ninth Revision ICD 630-676). If death occurred more than 42 days after termination of pregnancy, the death is not considered to be pregnancy-related and is not assigned to codes 630-676.

Medical Certification of Death - The medical certification of death can be made only by a person authorized by law, usually a physician or a coroner. Thus, the reliability and accuracy of cause-of-death statistics are, to a large extent, governed by the acumen and ability of the doctor or coroner to make the proper diagnosis and by the care with which the death certificate is completed. It is recognized that death may not result from a single morbid condition. Since 1980, South Carolina medical certifiers have been asked to provide contributing conditions adding to the underlying cause of death information.

Multiple Cause of Death - Cause of death statistics have, for many years, been based only on the underlying cause of death, the single disease or injury that initiated the sequence of events leading to death or the circumstances of the accident that produced the fatal injury. The underlying cause is selected by a computerized algorithm called the Automated Classification of Medical Entities (ACME) from the ordering of conditions reported by physicians or coroners on the death certificate. Analysis of the underlying cause of death information allows for simplified, consistent reporting of data and provides a means of evaluating the impact of public health initiatives. When more than one cause is reported on the certificate, however, the tabulation of only one cause for mortality statistics may lead to a loss of information on any condition that is an element in the death but that is not selected as the underlying cause of death. Cause-of-death statistics are usually based on the underlying cause of death, a single disease or injury circumstance that initiated the sequence of events leading to death. In this system, each death is assigned one underlying cause of death. However, death certificates provide for the inclusion of more information than the underlying cause of death alone. The immediate cause of death, antecedent causes giving rise to the immediate cause, and other significant conditions contributing to the death also may be entered by the medical certifier. These data provide a way of estimating the impact of significant co-factors contributing to a death and offer a means of utilizing information on causes, such as hypertension, asthma, bronchitis, and diabetes, that are frequently present at death but that are usually not lethal by themselves. Each death is assigned one underlying cause and up to nineteen contributing causes of death.

Neonatal Death - Death occurring during the neonatal period (i.e. under 28 days of age).

Occurrence Data - Data allocated to the place in South Carolina where the event occurred, regardless of the usual residence of the person involved.

Perinatal Death - Death occuring during the perinatal period (i.e. a live born infant less than 28 days of age and a fetus that has passed the twentieth week of gestation or weighs 350 grams or more).

Postneonatal Death - Death occurring during the postneonatal period (i.e. 28-364 days of age).

Race - Race of the decedent is reported on death certificates. Fetal deaths are reported by race of mother.

Rate Calculations with Small Numbers - There are variations in all statistics which are the result of chance. This characteristic is of particular importance in classifications with small numbers of events where small variations are proportionately large in relation to the base figure. As an example, small changes in the number of deaths in small population areas or in the number of deaths from uncommon causes could result in large changes in these crude rates. For this reason, rates for counties with small populations or other small bases should be used cautiously. In these tables, rates are not calculated for places of less than 2500 population or when the number of events is less than 5 for a particular category, due to the known instability of rates based on small numbers.

Residence Data - Data allocated to the place in South Carolina where the person normally resided, regardless of where the event occurred.

Underlying Cause of Death - Disease or injury that initiated the sequence of morbid events leading directly to death. (International Classification of Disease)

Population Data: Population Data for years 1990-2000 are provided by South Carolina Office of Research and Statistics

Return to top


Document's URL:
Page Maintained by SCAN Project Team
Last updated by the Division of Biostatistics and Health GISPHSIS, of SCDHEC. DISCLAIMER