Trends in mortality rates in England, 1996-2004

This part of the website provides a profile of mortality trends in the population of England from 1996 to 2004 for a large number of medical conditions. The data are derived from death certificates. For each death, the Office for National Statistics codes one underlying cause of death. Where more than one cause of death is certified, all the causes are termed ‘mentions’. Our analyses provide information about trends in mortality by certified underlying cause of death, and also about trends in mortality for all ‘mentions’. For each condition, a table of age- and sex- specific mortality rates is presented together with graphs of annual death rates for males and females.

Deaths were coded to the ninth revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD9) for the years 1996-2000 and to ICD10 for 2001-2004. Age-specific mortality rates in 5-year age-groups were used to calculate age-standardised mortality rates with 95% confidence intervals for each time period. Age-standardised rates for each individual calendar year were calculated by applying the age-specific rates in each five-year age-group in each calendar year to the European standard population. We calculated the average annual percentage change from 1996-2004 in mortality rates for mentions, using data for each individual calendar year, by fitting linear regression models to the logarithms of the death rates. Deaths in the final year for which data are available, namely 2004, may be slightly low due to late registration of some deaths

Users of these data should note that there may be discontinuities in mortality trends for some conditions because of the changeover from ICD9 to ICD10 coding in 2001. The number of available codes was expanded substantially with the ICD10 revision. In addition, the list of conditions affected by Rule 3, an ICD rule that governs the selection of the underlying cause of death, is different from, that for ICD9.

The analyses have been undertaken as a collaboration between the Unit of Health-Care Epidemiology, Oxford University and the South East Public Health Observatory (SEPHO). They were performed on the SEPHO death file, which was provided by the Office for National Statistics.

Individual diseases or groups of diseases:

DISEASE NAME ICD10 CODES ICD9 CODES
Acquired hypothyroidism E03 244
Acute bronchitis and bronchiolitis J20-J21 466
Agranulocytosis D70 288.0
Ankylosing spondylitis M45 720
Anterior horn cell disease G12.2 335
Aortic aneurysm and dissection I71 441
Aplastic anaemia D60-D61 284
Appendicitis K35-K37 540-542
Asthma J45-J46 493
Bipolar affective disorder F31 296
Bladder cancer C67 188
Brain cancer C71 191
Breast cancer C50 174-175
Burns T20-T32 940-949
Cervical cancer C53 180
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease J40-J44 490-492+496
Chronic rheumatic heart disease I05-I09 393-398
Colon cancer C18 153
Congenital malformations Q00-Q99 740-759
Crohn's disease K50 555
Dementia F00-F03+G30 290+331
Diabetes mellitus E10-E14 250
Diverticular disease K57 562
Duodenal ulcer K26 532
Epilepsy G40-G41 345
Femoral hernia K41 551.0+552.0+553.0
Gallbladder cancer C23-C24 156
Gallbladder disease K80-K82 574-575
Gastric ulcer K25 531
Gastrointestinal infection A00-A09 001-009
Gastrointestinal haemorrhage K92.0-K92.2 578
Heart failure I50 428
Hodgkin's disease C81 201
Hyperplasia of prostate N40 600
Hypertension I10-I15 401-405
Inflammatory diseases of female pelvic organs N70-N77 614-616
Influenza and other acute upper respiratory infections J00-J11 460-465+487
Inguinal hernia K40 550
Ischaemic heart disease I20-I25 410-414
Lung cancer C33-C34 162
Lymphoid leukaemia C91 204
Malignant melanoma of skin C43 172
Meningeal cancer C70 192.1+192.3
Meningococcal infection A39 036
Multiple sclerosis G35 340
Myeloid leukaemia C92 205
Myocardial infarction I21-I22 410
Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma C82-C85 200+202
Oesophageal cancer C15 150
Other stroke I61-I64+I69 431-434+436+438
Ovarian cancer C56 183
Pancreatic cancer C25 157
Pancreatitis K85+K86.0 577
Parkinson's disease G20-G21 332
Peptic ulcer K25-K28 531-534
Peripheral vascular disease I73 443
Pneumonia J12-J18 480-486
Polyarteritis nodosa M30.0 446.0
Prostate cancer C61 185
Pulmonary embolism I26.9 415.1
Rectal cancer C19-C20 154
Renal failure N17-N19 584-586
Rheumatic fever I00-I02 390-392
Rheumatoid arthritis M05-M06 714.0-714.2
Sarcoidosis D86 135
Schizophrenia F20 295
Stomach cancer C16 151
Subarachnoid haemorrhage I60 430
Systemic lupus erythematosus M32 710.0
Testicular cancer C62 186
Thyroid cancer C73 193
Thyrotoxicosis E05 242
Tuberculosis A15-A19+B90 010-018+137
Ulcerative colitis K51+K59.3 556
Urolithiasis N20-N23 592+594
Uterine cancer C54 182
Viral hepatitis B15-B19 070


Big Data Institute

Unit of Health Care Epidemiology


The content of this website was designed and produced by Michael Goldacre, Nick Hall, Mattasser Nazir, Leicester Gill, Myfanwy Griffith, and Glenys Bettley.

The work was funded at various times by the Department of Health, the NHS National Co-ordinating Centre for Research Capacity Development, the Department of Health's National Institute for Health Research, the Department of Health's National Centre for Health Outcomes Development, and the Nuffield Department of Population Health.

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