| **National Center    for     Health Statistics            Division of Data     Services            6525 Belcrest Road     Hyattsville, MD     20782-2003     (301)458-4636      **

 

**Mortality Data from the      National Vital Statistics SystemDescription    | News Releases and Fact Sheets      | Data HighlightsMethods | Publications    | Tabulated data      | Micro-dataInternational Activities | Links to Related Sites      | Search NCHSContact Us**
**International Classification of    Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9)**

The *International Classification of    Diseases* (ICD) is designed to promote international comparability in the collection,    processing, classification, and presentation of **mortality statistics**.

This includes providing a format for    reporting causes of death on the death certificate. The reported conditions are then    translated into medical codes through use of the classification structure and the    selection and modification rules contained in the applicable revision of the ICD,    published by the World Health Organization. These coding rules improve the usefulness of    mortality statistics by giving preference to certain categories, by consolidating    conditions, and by systematically selecting a single cause of death from a reported    sequence of conditions. The single selected cause for tabulation is called the underlying    cause of death, and the other reported causes are the nonunderlying causes of death. The    combination of underlying and nonunderlying causes is the multiple causes of death.

The ICD has been    revised periodically to incorporate changes in the medical field. To date, there have been    10 revisions of the ICD. The years for which causes of death in the United States have    been classified by each revision are as follows:

***Revision***
***Years        covered***1st1900-19092d1910-203d1921-294th1930-385th1939-486th1949-577th1958-678th1968-789th1979-9810th1999-present
The U.S. introduced its    own classification and coding rules for Human immunodeficiency virus infection (HIV)    mortality effective with the 1987 data year (see the Technical Appendix of *Vital    Statistics of the United States*).

The ICD-9 is no longer available in    print. **Volume    I**, modified for U.S. purposes, is available. In addition, the most detailed    tabulation list of causes used in the U.S. can be found at the beginning of the mortality    worktable **GMWKI**.

A related classification, the **International Classification of    Diseases, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM)**, is used in assigning codes to    diagnoses associated with inpatient, outpatient, and physician office utilization in the    U.S. Volume 3 (procedures) is used in assigning codes associated with inpatient    procedures. The ICD-9-CM is based on the ICD but provides for additional morbidity detail    and is annually updated.

 

**Mortality Data from the      National Vital Statistics SystemDescription    | News Releases and Fact Sheets      | Data HighlightsMethods | Publications    | Tabulated data      | Micro-dataInternational Activities | Links to Related Sites      | Search NCHSContact Us**
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This page last    reviewed July 26, 2000

**U.S.    DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES****Centers    for Disease Control and Prevention**    National Center for Health Statistics    Division of Data Services     Hyattsville, MD    20782-2003    (301) 458-4636
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