FOI/2021/2723
You asked
Please could you provide the following information :
How many adults with learning disabilities have died each year, from 2015 to 2021?
How many died with COVID-19?
How many died of COVID-19?
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
Our mortality data are based on the information collected at death registration. All the conditions mentioned on the death certificate are coded using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). From all of these causes an underlying cause of death is selected using ICD-10 coding rules. The underlying cause of death is defined by WHO as:
a) the disease or injury that initiated the train of events directly leading to death, or
b) the circumstances of the accident or violence that produced the fatal injury.
We are not able to identify whether the deceased had a learning disability because it isn't recorded on the death certificate. It would only be recorded on a death certificate if it was the underlying cause of death or a contributory factor. Therefore, we consider this information not held.
However, we have produced estimates of COVID-19 mortality risk by self-reported disability status and diagnosed learning disability status, using linked data from the 2011 Census, death registrations, and primary care and hospital records. This publication was released on 11 February 2021 and contains data up to 20 November 2020: Updated estimates of coronavirus (COVID-19) related deaths by disability status, England: 24 January to 20 November 2020.
We are currently exploring how we can improve this analysis to cover different types of disability and hope to release an update in Autumn 2021. When a release date is finalised, it will be announced via our release calendar.
This publication was produced using statistical models of linked data. We only hold this linked data for the specific time covered by the publication and are therefore unable to provide you with data for 2015 to 2019. We are not authorised to use linked data to produce bespoke tabulations. We can only provide bespoke tabulations of unlinked death registrations data.
Latest information on deaths involving COVID-19 is available in the following publication: provisional weekly deaths. This publication includes deaths 'due to' COVID-19 (where it was recorded as the underlying cause of death) and deaths 'involving' COVID-19 (where it was mentioned anywhere on the death certificate). You can find a breakdown of these figures for 2021 in our main weekly deaths tabulations, available here. Data for 2020 was published in a different spreadsheet, which is available here.
We also publish numbers of deaths involving COVID-19 by main pre-existing condition. These statistics are available in our Monthly mortality analysis, England and Wales publication.
If you wish to discuss this further, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.