1. Definition
European Shortlist for Causes of Death (COD) is a tool mainly used for statistical purposes giving a categorisation of the more relevant causes of death across European Union. It takes the shape of a 65-items list.
2. Objectives
- Tool for international comparisons and share of mortality data
- Allow analysis of mortality at regional level
- Allow analysis of long-term results such as retrospective studies and mortality projections
3. Owner
Eurostat developed (and will maintain if needed) the COD.
4. Intended audience
COD has been developed in order to provide to all persons and organisations that may need to have a shortlist of causes of death such a tool. The main target was the statistical institutes or organisations that may need to create statistics on the topic. European Union Member States are as well targeted because they provide statistics to Eurostat thanks to this list.
5. Long description
The causes of death selected in the 65-list have been chosen after careful examination of many lists being used by the Member States and the World Health Organisation (WHO). It includes the most relevant COD for EU. The basis on which the causes were selected for this list were:
- of relevance with respect to EU mortality patterns;
- of relevance of national and sub-national health programmes;
- of relevance for desegregation by regional (NUTS 2) level;
- of special importance to mortality trend and projections;
- subject of 'frequently asked questions'.
Another important element regarding the actual 65-list is that not all Member States collect data at the same level of detail of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD, maintained by the WHO); some countries collect at 3-digit, others at 4-digit level. Also, not all Member States introduce ICD-10 at the same year.
Since existing shortlists could not be used for the different ICD versions, care was taken for all the 65 causes included in the 65-list being compatible with all the versions of ICD; in fact this is a shortlist for COD that is compatible with the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Revisions of ICD.
6. Known implementations
The COD is primarily used by all European Union Member States in order to give standard statistics to Eurostat.
7. History / Key milestones
For its demographic statistics, Eurostat used to work with a shortlist of 11 groupings of causes of death (COD). In 1995, all European Union Member States have been consulted on Eurostat's proposals for a revised reporting on 'causes of death statistics' and Member States agreed to co-operate to arrive at a more detailed data collection at EU level. The Working Group on 'Public Health statistics' gave mandate to the Task Force on Causes of death statistics (TF/COD) to work out, together with Eurostat, practical points and technical aspects. For the Member States where (a) national shortlist(s) already exist(s), a European shortlist could be used in supplement.
In August 1998, the current 65-list of causes of death has been validated by TF/COD and Eurostat.
