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| Institute of Health Systems |
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Home  Burden of Disease |
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| Cause of Death |
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Premature mortality is a major contributor to disease burden. According to the GBD estimates (Murray and Lopez, 1996) the YLL component of DALYs was about 50% in established market economies, where the epidemiological transition had already taken place. In former socialist economies, China, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), 57%-58% of disease burden was due to premature mortality. In India, Middle Eastern Crescent (MEC), the rest of Asia and islands (OAI), YLLs contributed 65-69% of total DALYs lost in 1990. In sub - Saharan Africa, more than 75% of DALYs was contributed by YLLs. In case of India 84% of the disease burden among children was estimated to be on account of premature mortality. A little more than half of DALYs, lost among older children and young adults, was due to premature mortality. For older people, the contribution of premature mortality to disease burden was 66% or higher. Hence the causes of these deaths is important for health policy.
Premature mortality (YLLs) and disability (YLDs) components of disease burden in India as per GBD Version-5. |
| Age groupe |
YLLs |
YLDs |
DALYs |
%YLLs |
| 0-4 |
53,378 |
10,086 |
63,464 |
84.11% |
| 5-14 |
9,591 |
8,921 |
18,512 |
51.81% |
| 15-44 |
16,767 |
15,506 |
32,273 |
51.95% |
| 45-59 |
9,923 |
5,004 |
14,927 |
66.48% |
| 60 |
6,423 |
3,108 |
9,531 |
67.39% |
| All ages |
96,082 |
42,625 |
138,707 |
69.27% |
| Source: Murray and Lopez, 1996 |
Since the major share of disease burden would be from premature mortality, accurate estimate of causes of death would constrain the accuracy of burden of disease estimates. Here we describe, for rural and urban areas of AP, respectively, the existing statistical base for cause of death reporting. We present results from a study undertaken in Andhra Pradesh to improve the accuracy of cause of death data from the rural areas. Our study on causes of death in urban areas of AP is currently underway. Mean while, we have used medically certified cause of death statistics from the neighbouring state of Maharashtra, where coverage of the medical certification of cause of death is better.
- COD Reporting System in India
- Characteristics
- SCD & SRS - COD
- Can we Improve the COD RS
- Summary Findings
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At the national level, the Registrar General of India (RGI) is responsible for collection, collation and publication of cause of death statistics. At the state level, the Vital Statistics Division of the Directorate of Health deals with cause of death statistics. Cause of death reports originate from lay reporters in rural areas and medical attendants in urban areas. The reports reach the State Vital Statistics office through the primary health centre, in case of rural areas, and the municipal health office for urban areas. Tabulation is usually done at the state level but the statistics are published by the RGI. Until December 1998, cause of death data for the rural areas used to be collected under the Survey of Cause of Death Rural (SCD-Rural) scheme, from a sample of villages by a lay diagnosis and reporting system. A paramedical person from the PHC is designated as the field agent who undertakes the primary survey. (S)he identifies key informants and maintains liaison with them. A household register is drawn up and updated on a half yearly basis. For each death occurring in the village, the field agent identifies one or more persons having knowledge of the circumstances of death, interviews them and records the symptoms and circumstances of death in Form-7. A structured questionnaire is used to investigate cause of death using the symptoms and circumstances of death. The structured questionnaire is supplemented by a check list. The field agent arrives at a probable cause of death by applying the structured questionnaire to symptoms and circumstances recorded in Form-7. The check list entry against the probable cause of death is tallied with the symptoms and circumstances of death. The cause of death thus arrived is reported in Form-3. The PHC statistician is designated as the recorder of events reported by the field agent. Half-yearly verification of the household list is done by the recorder. Medical officer of the PHC is expected to check and certify the correctness of cause of death assignment by the field agent. Assignment of cause of death is done by the field agent based on a structured interview with a member of concerned household. The structured questionnaire currently in use was adopted after taking into account five years of field experience with a provisional questionnaire. The non medical list (NML) of causes of death was last revised in 1983 to correspond to ICD ninth revision (RGI, 1991). SCD-Rural used verbal autopsy (VA) to arrive at cause of deaths using paramedical personnel.
From January 1999 a cause of death component has been added to the SRS (RGI, 1999). We call this the SRS-COD component. Two more columns have been added to SRS Form-5 (Columns 16-17) and Form-10 (columns 12-13). The SRS part-time enumerator (PTE) records cause of death in column 16 and the code in column 17 of the revised Form-5. The SRS supervisor records similar information in columns 12 and 13 of the revised Form-10. A major departure from the SCD-Rural design is doing away with the symptom record (SCD-Rural Form-7). Another departure from the SCD-Rural is the elimination of the structured questionnaire. Instead the instructions contain a list of causes, related symptoms for some, and the corresponding ICD-10 code.
In case of the urban areas, a medical certification of cause of death (MCCD) scheme is operational. This scheme has been acceded legal sanction under the Registration of Births and Deaths (RBD) Act. All medically attended deaths are expected to be registered (Form-2) along with cause of death reports in a format (Form-4) which is similar to what is prescribed by the WHO for International Classification of Cause of Death (ICD). The responsibility for reporting cause of death rests with the doctor / health care provider who last attended on the deceased. Reports are sent to the municipal health authorities, who forward them to the concerned state vital statistics office. The medical attendant is required to follow guidelines contained in the Physician's manual on medical certification of cause of death (RGI, 1992). This manual prescribed the WHO form for reporting cause of death according to the current version of ICD. Coding and tabulation is done according to the National List which is an adaptation of the ICD basic tabulation list. Since the MCCD essentially implements ICD coding and guidelines, the design of the system is considered satisfactory.
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