Sudden adult death syndrome 2017 to 2022

FOI Ref: FOI/2022/4727

You asked

​Please supply the number of fatalities resulting in sudden adult death syndrome during the past five years. Including 2021 and 2022 so far please.

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, this information can be found on our interactive webservice NOMIS. The associated download named 'Mortality_statistics_Sudden_Adult_Deaths_ 2016_to_2021' is an output from NOMIS. This provides deaths from SAD from 2016 to 2021 for England and Wales, including non-residents.

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, this data will be available in NOMIS in July 2022 to allow the inclusion of late registrations.

However, if you wish to receive the provisional data we hold so far before July 2023, we can create this data as a bespoke request for you. Please note, this data will be subject to change. 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). These enquiries can be made to the Health Analysis and Pandemic Insight Customer Services team on Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.

As this information for 2022 is reasonably accessible via another route, even if only accessible on payment, Section 21(2)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) applies.