FOI Ref: FOI/2022/4311
You asked
Is there any way of finding out the number of people recorded as dying from heart attack or stroke that have had Covid-19 less than a year before their death and where their death certificate does not record Covid-19 as the cause of their death?
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
ONS mortality data is taken from information collected at the point of death registration. The doctor or the coroner will only mention COVID-19 on the death certificate if they believed it contributed to the cause of death. When the doctor or coroner writes a death certificate, they consider all the available information about the patient's health and the events surrounding their death. They then include on the death certificate only those health conditions that actually contributed to the cause of death. The medical certificate of cause of death has two parts, Part 1 contains the sequence of health conditions or events leading directly to death, while Part 2 can contain other health conditions that contributed to the death but were not part of the direct sequence. If the patient had other health conditions at the time, but they did not influence the fact that the person died at that time, those health conditions are not included on the death certificate.
COVID-19 would only be reported if the certifying doctor or coroner deemed it to have been a factor that directly contributed to the death. Therefore, we do not hold the data you have requested.
Further information on death registrations and mortality statistics can be found within our User guide to mortality statistics.
We are currently undertaking some experimental work with other agencies including NHS Digital to investigate the impact of 'Long Covid'. We have released publications looking at the effects of Long COVID Prevalence of ongoing symptoms following coronavirus (COVID-19) infection in the UK.
Whilst this analysis will provide important information around the long-term health issues associated with COVID it will not provide estimates of the number of people recovered from the infection or estimate of those who have died from other causes whilst suffering from Long COVID or COVID 19 in the past.