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4.2 Coding of Death Data

WISQARS Fatal Injury Mapping uses National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) mortality data covering the years 2008–2014. Maps present injury death rates derived from these data according to intent of death (e.g., unintentional, suicide, homicide) and mechanism of death (e.g., fall, firearm, motor vehicle, poisoning, suffocation). Intent and mechanism of injury categories are based on codes in the International Classification of Disease, 10th Revision² (ICD-10) external cause of injury code set. These external-cause-of-injury codes have been incorporated into the ICD-10 alphanumeric classification system as Chapter 20. ICD-10 external-cause-of-injury codes begin with the letters V, W, X, Y, or *U (terrorism) followed by a two-digit whole number (e.g., W25). Some external-cause-of-injury codes also have a decimal point followed by another digit (e.g., V30.4).

ICD-10 codes are used in various countries worldwide for coding deaths. The ICD-10 scheme includes code sets for types of disease, medical procedures, and external causes of injury. The numbers of deaths by external cause of injury were determined by using the underlying cause-of-death codes from the annual mortality data files of the NCHS National Vital Statistics System (NVSS). Further information is available from the NCHS/NVSS Web site.

The intent and mechanism of injury categories available in WISQARS Fatal Injury Mapping are consistent with standard ICD-10 external-cause-of-injury groupings for reporting injury mortality data (available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/ice/icd10_transcode.pdfpdf icon. [PDF 108KB] NCHS collaborated with the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control and members of the Injury Control and Emergency Health Services section of the American Public Health Association to develop these groupings.

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WISQARS^TM Fatal Injury Mapping

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