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Beginning with deaths occurring in January 1999, the United States began using International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) to classify causes of death reported on death certificates. ICD-9 had been used during 1979-1998.
Implementation of ICD-10 has had an important impact on the presentation and interpretation of mortality statistics by cause-of-death. The change to ICD-10 has created a discontinuity in trends that must be accounted for when comparing current mortality data to mortality occurring in years prior to 1999.
To put it another way, current cause-of-death data are not comparable to years prior to 1999, unless adjustments are made for the coding and classification changes. Without adjustment, it is impossible to know whether an observed increase or decrease in deaths due to a particular cause is "real" or merely the result of the changes in classification and coding.
The following documents can be used to under stand differences in the data due to the change form ICD-9 to ICD-10 and provide a method to account for the change.
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