FOI Ref: FOI/2023/4761
You asked
I was directed to you by NHS digital as I aim to find out how many children died due to what is seen as preventable illnesses which the NHS immunisation schedule covers, for all of them, individually and together.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
We are responsible for the production of mortality statistics in England and Wales, using information collected from death certificates at death registration. Vaccination status is not provided on the death certificate. We do receive vaccination data from NHS Digital specifically for COVID-19. However, this does not include all other vaccination programmes. Therefore, we do not hold information on illness and mortality by vaccination status, other than COVID-19.
Avoidable mortality
We do produce UK headline mortality figures, please see the following link: Avoidable mortality in Great Britain – children and young people. This dataset contains age-standardised mortality figures for avoidable mortality in children and young people aged between 0-19. Please see the definitions tab which provides a breakdown the ICD-10 avoidable mortality codes which are considered as either preventable or treatable.
For reference, ONS defines avoidable mortality as deaths that are preventable or treatable.
Preventable mortality refers to causes of death that can be mainly avoided through effective public health and primary prevention interventions (that is, before the onset of diseases or injuries, to reduce incidence). Treatable mortality refers to causes of death that can be mainly avoided through timely and effective healthcare interventions, including secondary prevention and treatment (that is, after the onset of disease, to reduce case-fatality). Our latest dataset is for 2020 with 2021 data scheduled for release in March 2023.
We also hold annual mortality data from 2013 – 2021,available in our explorable dataset on our NOMIS webservice. You can use this data and filter on the ICD10 codes that fall within the treatable/preventable categories. The explorable data will also allow you to filter by five-year age group instead of 0-19 in the avoidable mortality dataset. Please follow the steps below to select data in NOMIS.
- Select the geography (England and Wales, regional or by local authority).
- Select Age – All ages or 5-year age bands.
- Select Gender – Total or Male/Female
- Select rates – All deaths, rates or percentage of population for example.
- Select cause of death (ICD10 code search is available).
- Select format (Excel or CSV for example)
Additionally, ONS have published a back series as part of our 21st century mortality, which contains all-cause mortality data by ICD code, age and sex, 2001-2021, England and Wales. You can filter on the underlying cause ('column A') for each year and filter on the avoidable mortality ICD-10 codes from the definitions tab.
If you would like to discuss this enquiry further, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.