3303.0 - Causes of Death, Australia, 2009 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 03/05/2011   
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NOTES


IN THIS ISSUE

This publication presents statistics on the number of deaths for reference year by state or territory of Australia, sex, selected age groups, and cause of death classified to the World Health Organisation's International Classification of Diseases (ICD). Version 10 of the ICD has been introduced from 1999.

Explanatory Notes and a technical note describing the impact of Causes of Death revisions are presented in this publication.

Users should read these notes in order to make themselves aware of changes in ABS processes which have had an impact on 2009, 2008 and 2007 data.


CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE

Causes of death data for 2007 has been revised for a second time as part of the causes of death revisions.

Causes of death data for 2008 has been revised for the first time as part of the causes of death revisions.

Year of occurrence data is being released in Chapter 8 of this publication and the associated data cube at the same time as year of registration data.


CAUSES OF DEATH REVISIONS

All coroner certified deaths registered after 1 January 2007 are now subject to a revision process. This is a change from previous years where all ABS processing of causes of death data for a particular reference period were finalised approximately 13 months after the end of the reference period. Where insufficient information was available to code a cause of death (e.g. a coroner certified death was yet to be finalised by the Coroner), less specific ICD-10 codes were assigned as required by the ICD-10 coding rules. The revision process enables the use of additional information relating to coroner certified deaths as it becomes available over time. This may result in increased specificity of the assigned ICD-10 codes.

Final data for 2007 and revised data for 2008 is published in this release on a reference year basis. Final 2008 and revised 2009 data will also be published in the 2010 Causes of Death release in March 2012. The revisions process only impacts on coroner certified deaths which remain open at the finalisation of ABS processing. See Technical Note: Causes of Death Revisions.


PERINATAL DEATHS

Perinatal death statistics will be published in Perinatal Deaths, 2009 (cat. no. 3304.0) in mid May 2011.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This publication draws extensively on information provided freely by the state and territory Registrars of Births, Deaths and Marriages, and the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine who manage the National Coroners Information System (NCIS). Their continued cooperation is very much appreciated: without it, the wide range of vitals statistics published by the ABS would not be available.


INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.