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ILL DEFINED CAUSES (R00-R99)

Data for Ill defined causes for 2008 have been positively impacted by process improvements. See Explanatory Notes 67-68 and Technical Note 1: 2008 COD Collection - Process Improvements for further information. 2008 data are also subject to a revisions process which will further impact data for Ill defined causes. See Technical Note 2: Causes of Death - Revisions Process.

Ill defined causes (R00-R99) accounted for 1,243 deaths registered in Australia in 2008. This represented 0.9% of all registered deaths.

Deaths due to Other ill-defined and unspecified cause of mortality (R99) accounted for 874 deaths, or 70% of all deaths due to Ill-defined causes. The number of deaths coded to Ill-defined causes are affected by the number of open coronial cases remaining on the National Coroners Information System (NCIS) at the end of the ABS processing period. The majority of open cases for which no information was available at the end of processing have been coded to Other ill-defined and unspecified causes (R99).

In 2008, there were 59 deaths identified as being due to Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) (R95). In processing Causes of Death, the ABS will only code a death to SIDS if specifically mentioned on the death certificate. The number of open coronial cases could potentially include deaths which would be determined as SIDS deaths when closed. For further information, see Technical Note 2: Causes of Death - Revisions Process.

For the past 10 years, typically more males have died from SIDS than females. This trend continued in 2008, with 34 male deaths compared to 25 female deaths. The majority of these deaths occurred in the period between 28 days and 1 year of age, with 44 (75%) of infants with SIDS as the underlying cause of death in this age range in 2008.

4.17 SELECTED UNDERLYING CAUSES(a), Ill Defined Causes (R00-R99)(b) - 2008(c)(d)(e)
			Males	Females	Persons	Proportion of all deaths
Cause of Death and ICD Code			no.	no.	no.	%
CHAPTER XVIII Symptoms, signs and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings, not elsewhere classified (R00-R99)			653	590	1 243	0.9
	Symptoms and signs involving the circulatory and respiratory systems (R00-R09)		12	37	49	-
		Other symptoms and signs involving the circulatory and respiratory systems (R09)	11	29	40	-
	General symptoms and signs (R50-R69)		58	175	233	0.2
		Malaise and fatigue (R53)	5	22	27	-
		Senility (R54)	24	82	106	0.1
		Other general symptoms and signs (R68)	24	44	68	-
	Ill-defined and unknown causes of mortality (R95-R99)		570	365	935	0.6
		Sudden infant death syndrome (R95)	34	25	59	-
	Other ill-defined and unspecified causes of mortality (R99)		535	339	874	0.6
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
(a) Causes selected are those with 20 or more deaths at the 3 digit level of ICD-10.
(b) For further information relating to this data, see Explanatory Notes 67-68.
(c) 2008 data have been subject to process improvements which have increased the quality of these data. See Technical Note 1: 2008 COD Collection - Process Improvements for further information.
(d) Causes of death data for 2008 are preliminary and subject to a revisions process. See Technical Note 2: Causes of Death - Revisions Process.
(e) Data cells with small values have been randomly assigned to protect the confidentiality of individuals. As a result, some totals will not equal the sum of their components. It is important to note that cells with a zero value have not been affected by confidentialisation.