DOI: 10.17863/cam.109961.2
title: Historic cause of death coding and classification scheme for individual-level causes of death - Codes

description: ICD10h2024.2 (this version, published June 2025) incorporates the following changes: - Manual: new preface to list changes to files; changes relating to code changes; a small number of other corrections and improvements. - Masterlist (see 2025MasterlistChanges): 9 new codes added, 5 codes deleted, and 17 changes made to ICD10 or ICD10h descriptions. - Transferfile (see 2025TransferfileChanges): 47 errors were fixed. - InfantCat (see 2025InfantCatChanges): 17 ICD10h codes were updated. - Historic Strings English (see 2025HistoricStringsEnglishChanges): 14 changes were made to ICD10h or ICD10hInjury codes were made. ICD10hDescription and ICD10hInjuryDescription columns were deleted. This file contains the list of codes and general categories associated with the ICD10h (Historic cause of death coding and classification scheme for individual-level causes of death). ICD10h has been designed by the authors to aid the coding and classification of causes of death recorded on historic individual death records and associated files include a manual, a list of exemplar strings in the English language, and a categorisation for infant mortality. The ICD10h system is based on the 10th revision of the International Classification of Diseases - 2016 version (ICD10 - 2016), and combines ICD10 codes (without modification) with new codes for archaic/historic terms. The data was derived from the following projects/deposited data: Determining the Demography of Victorian Scotland Through Record Linkage, ESRC RES-000-23-0128 held at the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure, University of Cambridge; P. Gunn and R. Kippen, ‘Household and Family Formation in Nineteenth-Century Tasmania, Dataset of 195 Thousand Births, 93 Thousand Deaths and 51 Thousand Marriages Registered in Tasmania, 1838-1899’, 2008. The resource creation was supported by the following projects: Digitising Scotland/Scottish Health Informatics Project (funded by the ESRC); Studying Health in Port Cities (funded by The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research); The Great Leap (funded by COST-Action CA22116). SHARING/ACCESS INFORMATION This resource is available under a CC BY licence. Recommended citation for this dataset: Historic cause of death coding and classification scheme for individual-level causes of death – Codes [https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.109961.2] Please see the associated resources: Historic cause of death coding and classification scheme for individual-level causes of death – manual [https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.109960.2] Historic cause of death coding and classification scheme for individual-level causes of death – English language historic strings [https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.109962.2] Historic cause of death coding and classification scheme for individual-level causes of death – Infant Categorisations [https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.109963.2] ICD10h is a research tool created to facilitate the study of historical cause of death records and should not be used for any official purpose. It is based on the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10) version 2016 (Geneva: World Health Organization 2016) but is not a recognised version or extension of ICD-10 and is not authorised by WHO. However we have consulted with WHO: they recognise that ICD10h is a useful academic methodology and have not raised any objections to its creation. Data coded using ICD10h are not directly comparable with data coded in ICD-10, and the underlying or primary cause of death derived using the ICD10h methodology may be different from the underlying cause derived in ICD-10 according to the WHO rules. Please note that ICD-10 version 2016 is not the most recent version of ICD-10; and that WHO now recommend the use of ICD-11; a more advanced and detailed classification. DATA & FILE OVERVIEW ICD10h_Masterlist.xlsx Excel file consisting of 3 worksheets: 1) ReadMe sheet 2) Masterlist 3) 2020to2024transfer Separate csv files for 2) and 3) containing the same information. This file builds on a previous, unpublished version of ICD10h (dating from 2020). The 2020to2024transfer file enables data coded to the earlier version to be updated to the current version. METHODOLOGICAL INFORMATION The data were hand-coded and subject to stringent algorithm-assisted tests. DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: Masterlist Number of variables: 10 Number of cases/rows: 14088 Variable List: IDMasterlist (a unique ID number for Masterlist table) ICD10h (ICD10h code) ICD10 (ICD10 code) ICD10_2levelCATEGORY (ICD10 first part of 2 level categorisation) ICD10_2levelCAUSE (ICD10 second part of 2 level categorisation) ICD10h_DESCRIPTION (ICD10h description - this differs from ICD10_2levelCAUSE only where there is a specific historical code) Histcat (category of general historical categorisation) DoNotUse (1=do not use for mortality coding – ICD10 asterisk codes) NotForUnderlying (1=do not use for underlying mortality codes) GenderSpecific (0=can be used for men or women; 1=use for men only; 2=use for women only) DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: 2020to2024transfer Number of variables: 4 Number of cases/rows: 13763 Variable List: ID2024_transfer (unique ID for 2020to2024transfer table) IDoct2020Masterlist (ID variable from the 2020 Masterlist) ICD10h_oct2020 (ICD10h from the October 2020 Masterlist) ICD10h2024 (ICD10h value from the current version of the Masterlist)