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American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access published online on April 9, 2007
American Journal of Epidemiology, doi:10.1093/aje/kwm037
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American Journal of Epidemiology Copyright © 2007 by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health All rights reserved; printed in U.S.A.

Practice of Epidemiology

Using Multiple Cause-of-Death Data to Investigate Associations and Causality between Conditions Listed on the Death Certificate

Matthew D. Redelings1, Matthew Wise1,2 and Frank Sorvillo1,2

1 Data Collection and Analysis Unit, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA
2 Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA

Correspondence to Matthew D. Redelings, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, 313 North Figueroa Street, Room 127, Los Angeles, CA 90012 (e-mail: mredelings{at}ph.lacounty.gov).

Received for publication September 25, 2006. Accepted for publication December 8, 2006.

Death rarely results from only one cause, and it can be caused by a variety of factors. Multiple cause-of-death data files can list as many as 20 contributing causes of death in addition to the reported underlying cause of death. Analysis of multiple cause-of-death data can provide information on associations between causes of death, revealing common combinations of events or conditions which lead to death. Additionally, physicians report the causal train of events through which they believe that different conditions or events may have led to each other and ultimately caused death. In this paper, the authors discuss methods used in studying associations between reported causes of death and in investigating commonly reported causal pathways between events or conditions listed on the death certificate.

cause of death; death certificates; mortality

Abbreviations: EOR, exposure odds ratio; HIV, human immunodeficiency virus; MCOD, multiple cause-of-death; MOR, mortality odds ratio


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RE: "USING MULTIPLE CAUSE-OF-DEATH DATA TO INVESTIGATE ASSOCIATIONS AND CAUSALITY BETWEEN CONDITIONS LISTED ON THE DEATH CERTIFICATE"
Am. J. Epidemiol., September 15, 2008; 168(6): 666 - 666.
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