Vitalnet^® Data Analysis - Multiple Cause Mortality

MultiCod is a unique system for analyzing multiple cause mortality data. MultiCod makes better use of the wealth of information available on the death certificate.

Makes fuller use of the data - MultiCod analyzes all causes listed on the death certificate. This is especially useful for analyzing increasing rates of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, lung disease and other chronic diseases in an aging population. These chronic conditions are often listed as contributing causes on the death certificate, and are missed by underlying cause analysis.

Provides a new way of looking at the data - Multiple cause data give a different, and perhaps equally valid, picture of the health of the community. Historically, multiple cause data have not been used much, at least partly because of the great technical difficulty involved. Carrying out multiple cause analyses by hand is tedious and error-prone. MultiCod makes it easy to reliably analyze multiple cause data.

Is only automated system for multiple cause - MultiCod produces correct results for multiple cause data. For example, to compare the rate for heart disease with the rate for diabetes, using multiple cause data. To our awareness, no other system has the capability for this. You may ask why. It's because: 1) We've built a unique database architecture that allows for multiple cause analysis. 2) We've invested the large effort needed to solve the many technical difficulties.

Provides special multiple cause outcomes - The program calculates death rates, age-adjusted death rates, leading causes, YPLL and other statistics based on any mention on the death certificate. These results can be compared with those derived from underlying cause analysis. MultiCod also produces the following statistics unique to multiple cause analysis:

• Average causes per death: A useful measure of comorbidity.
• Percent deaths with one cause: Also useful for evaluating comorbidity.

Vitalnet multiple-cause analyses also apply to hospital discharge data (not shown).

A few examples of multiple-cause mortality analysis:

• Leading causes - underlying cause analysis
• Leading causes - multiple cause analysis
• Highest average (mean) causes per death (high comorbidity)
• Highest percent deaths with one cause (low comorbidity)