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International Journal of Public Health

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01-02-2010 | Original Article

Reliability of coding causes of death with ICD-10 in Germany

Authors: Volker Winkler, Jördis J. Ott, Heiko Becher

Published in: International Journal of Public Health | Issue 1/2010

Abstract

Objectives

The international classification of diseases (ICD) is used to code death worldwide uniformly and comparably. This study investigates the reliability of national ICD-10 coding practice by assessing agreement of two official coding offices in Germany.

Methods

Inter-observer agreement for coding of 372 quasi-randomly selected death certificates is measured by percentages of agreement and simple kappa coefficients.

Results

Only 209 (56%) deaths were coded with the same 3-digit ICD-10 code. Agreement of the main chapters according to ICD-10 is higher with 78.2% and a kappa statistic of 0.69 (CI 95%, 0.63–0.75). Examples show that the coding rules correctly applied to the information given on the death certificates may lead to different conclusions.

Conclusions

Data show good agreement in the marginal distribution, and thus population frequencies of causes of death may be more reliable despite limited agreement between the two coding offices.

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Title: Reliability of coding causes of death with ICD-10 in Germany
Authors: Volker Winkler
Jördis J. Ott
Heiko Becher
Publication date: 01-02-2010
Publisher: SP Birkhäuser Verlag Basel
Published in: International Journal of Public Health / Issue 1/2010
Print ISSN: 1661-8556
Electronic ISSN: 1661-8564
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-009-0053-7

2024 ASCO Annual Meeting

Springer Medicine

Reliability of coding causes of death with ICD-10 in Germany

Abstract

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusions

2024 ASCO Annual Meeting

Springer Medicine

Abstract

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusions

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