Death certificates are a valuable source of epidemiological data, in terms of the immediate, antecedent, underlying and contributory causes of death listed on them. Conventionally, these data are only analysed according to the single underlying causes of death selected from multiple causes of death reported on the death certificate. This project aims to conduct in-depth analysis of multiple causes of death from Australian death registration data for the period 2006-2017, focusing on the causal patterns for deaths from cardiovascular diseases, and their associations with other relevant communicable and non-communicable diseases. The outcomes will support ongoing research on cardiovascular mortality risk profiles in Australia, exploring the potential for identifying disease clusters and associations that could inform mortality risk prediction and strategies for risk mitigation. Students will gain experience working with a large dataset with >1.7million records, learn nuances in death certification and mortality coding that influence statistical interpretation, and understand the principles and practices involved in deriving a range of statistical indicators that describe and/or quantify mortality incorporating multiple causes.

More about the broader Multiple Causes of Death project: https://nceph.anu.edu.au/research/projects/quantifying-mortality-incorporating-multiple-causes-death-optimising-data-policy

Related publications:
Bishop K, Balogun S, Eynstone-Hinkins J, Moran L, Martin M, Banks E, Rao C, Joshy G. Analysis of multiple causes of death: a review of methods and practices. Epidemiology 2023 Jan 31. https://doi.org/10.1097/ede.0000000000001597
Bishop K, Moreno-Betancur M, Balogun S, Eynstone-Hinkins J, Moran L, Rao C, Banks E, Korda RJ, Gourley M, Joshy G. Quantifying cause-related mortality in Australia incorporating multiple causes: observed patterns, trends, and practical considerations. International J Epidemiology 2022. Aug 19;dyac167. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac167