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. 2017 Sep;32(9):765-773.
doi: 10.1007/s10654-017-0316-1. Epub 2017 Oct 5.

The Swedish cause of death register

Hannah Louise Brooke  1 , Mats Talbäck  2 , Jesper Hörnblad  3 , Lars Age Johansson  4 , Jonas Filip Ludvigsson  5   6   7   8 , Henrik Druid  9 , Maria Feychting  2 , Rickard Ljung  2
Affiliations

The Swedish cause of death register

Hannah Louise Brooke et al. Eur J Epidemiol. 2017 Sep.

Abstract

Sweden has a long tradition of recording cause of death data. The Swedish cause of death register is a high quality virtually complete register of all deaths in Sweden since 1952. Although originally created for official statistics, it is a highly important data source for medical research since it can be linked to many other national registers, which contain data on social and health factors in the Swedish population. For the appropriate use of this register, it is fundamental to understand its origins and composition. In this paper we describe the origins and composition of the Swedish cause of death register, set out the key strengths and weaknesses of the register, and present the main causes of death across age groups and over time in Sweden. This paper provides a guide and reference to individuals and organisations interested in data from the Swedish cause of death register.

Keywords: Cause of death; Death certificates; Epidemiology; Mortality; Register; Sweden.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. For this type of study formal consent is not required.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Deaths in males and females at each age according to underlying cause, as a proportion of all deaths 2006–2015
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Proportion of deaths in males and females at each age according to underlying cause, 2006–2015
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Time trends from 1969 to 2015 in the proportion of deaths in males and females age 0–39 and 40+ years according to underlying cause (Age-standardised to the Swedish population in 1969)
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Deaths at each age as a proportion of all deaths for 1750, 1800, 1850, 1900, 1950, 2000 and 2015 [Each line (except 2015) represents an aggregated and smoothed 5-year period]
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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