FOI Ref: FOI/2022/4452
You asked
I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information you Please may you provide me with:
The number of people aged 1 to 90+ who have had 'Sudden Adult Death Syndrome' or 'Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome' recorded on their death certificates during the years 2021 and also 2022 (to date)
I would like this information to be broken down by year, and age groups, as it is in the following FOI request which was for the years 2016 to 2020:
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
All of the conditions mentioned on the death certificate are coded using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) the coded mortality data available up to end of December 2019 is coded to version 2014 of the ICD10 framework. 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 World Health Organisation (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
In England and Wales, deaths where "Sudden Adult Death Syndrome" or "Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome" are mentioned on the death certificate are recorded with an ICD-10 code of R96 or I49.9 respectively.
For deaths where Sudden adult death syndrome or Sudden Arrhythmic death syndrome have been recorded as the underlying cause of death in 2021, this information can be found on our interactive webservice NOMIS. We have attached an output from NOMIS with 2021 data for England and Wales, including non-residents by 5 year age group.
Should you wish to extract data from NOMIS yourself, please see the following instructions:
- 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)
We have not conducted analysis of these specific ICD-10 codes for 2022. However, we can create this data as a bespoke request for you. Special extracts and tabulations of mortality data for England and Wales are available to order (subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreements of costs under the ONS Charging Policy, where appropriate). These enquiries can be made to: Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.
As this information for 2022 is reasonably accessible via another route, even if only accessible on payment, Section 21(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) applies.