Importance of heart failure as a cause of death. Changing contribution to overall mortality and coronary heart disease mortality in Scotland 1979–1992

Aims As heart failure is a syndrome arising from another condition, such as coronary heart disease, it is rarely officially coded as the underlying cause of death regardless of the cause recorded by the physician at the time of certification. We sought to assess the true contribution of heart failur...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European heart journal 1998-12, Vol.19 (12), p.1829-1835
Main Authors: Murdoch, D.R., Love, M.P., Robb, S.D., McDonagh, T.A., Davie, A.P., Ford, I., Capewell, S., Morrison, C.E., McMurray, J.J.V.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age Distribution
Aged
Biological and medical sciences
Cardiology. Vascular system
Cause of Death - trends
Coronary Disease - mortality
coronary heart disease
Death Certificates
death certification
Female
Heart
Heart failure
Heart Failure - mortality
Heart failure, cardiogenic pulmonary edema, cardiac enlargement
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
mortality
Mortality - trends
Retrospective Studies
Scotland - epidemiology
Sex Distribution
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Summary:Aims As heart failure is a syndrome arising from another condition, such as coronary heart disease, it is rarely officially coded as the underlying cause of death regardless of the cause recorded by the physician at the time of certification. We sought to assess the true contribution of heart failure to overall mortality and coronary heart disease mortality and to examine how this contribution has changed over time. Methods and Results We carried out a retrospective analysis of all death certificates in Scotland between 1979 and 1992 for which heart failure was coded as the under-lying or a contributory cause of death. From a total of 833622 deaths in Scotland between 1979 and 1992, heart failure was coded as the underlying cause in only 1·5% (13695), but as a contributory cause in a further 14·3% (126073). In 1979, 28·5% of male and 40·4% of female deaths attributed to coronary heart disease (coded as the underlying cause of death) also had a coding for heart failure. In 1992 these percentages had risen significantly to 34·1% and 44·8%, respectively (bothP
ISSN:0195-668X
1522-9645
DOI:10.1053/euhj.1998.1269