What to know
The International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) is a global system for coding causes of death. ICD-10 helps users better understand human mortality through consistent classification. The World Health Organization publishes ICD-10.
Coding Causes of Death
The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is used to standardize mortality (death) statistics. This includes a format for reporting causes of death on a person's death certificate. The conditions are then translated into medical codes. The rules for coding are in the current revision of the ICD. The ICD is published by the World Health Organization.
Coding rules improve mortality statistics by:
- Giving preference to certain categories
- Combining conditions
- Selecting a single cause of death from many conditions
The selected cause is called the underlying cause of death. The other reported causes are called the non-underlying causes of death. The combination of underlying and non-underlying causes is called multiple causes of death.
ICD-10
The ICD can be revised to incorporate changes in the medical field. The current revision used in the United States is the Tenth Revision (ICD-10). Updating from the Ninth Revision (ICD-9) to ICD-10 affected many aspects of the mortality data system. This included the revision of instruction manuals, medical software, and analyses.
Overall, the content of ICD-10 and ICD-9 is similar, but there are key differences:
- Three volumes (instead of two)
- Alphanumeric codes (instead of numeric codes)
- Reorganization of some chapters and groups, with some title changes
- Nearly twice as many categories
- Minor changes to mortality coding rules
Accessing ICD-10
CDC provides the most detailed listing of U.S. underlying causes of death, the Each Cause List (ICD-10).
ICD-10's three volumes includes—
- Lists containing cause-of-death titles and codes (Volume 1)
- Inclusion and exclusion terms for cause-of-death titles (Volume 1)
- Descriptions, guidelines, and coding rules (Volume 2)
- An alphabetical index (Volume 3)
Resources
- Comparing cause-of-death between ICD revisions
- International Classification of Diseases, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM)
- History of the Statistical Classification of Diseases and Causes of Death
- Classification of Death and Injury Resulting from Terrorism (Historical)