Overview of key data sources: Deaths
The use of International Classifications in Scotland
The first 'International Classification of Causes of Death' was developed at the end of the nineteenth century. During the twentieth century periodic revisions, latterly co-ordinated by the World Health Organisation (WHO), have been produced almost every decade. The Second Revision was the first to be used in Scotland, in the Registrar General's Annual Report for 1911. The revisions used for the remainder of the twentieth century are summarised in the table below. This shows that the Ninth Revision (ICD9) was used for a rather longer period, 1979-1999, than any of the earlier revisions. Since 1 January 2000 GROS has been coding cause of death using the Tenth Revision (ICD10). The full title of the classification changed a number of times during the last century, the Tenth Revision being renamed as the 'International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems'.
| 1911-1920 | 2nd Revision |
| 1921-1930 | 3rd Revision |
| 1931-1940 | 4th Revision |
| 1941-1949 | 5th Revision |
| 1950-1957 | 6th Revision |
| 1958-1967 | 7th Revision |
| 1968-1978 | 8th Revision |
| 1979-1999 | 9th Revision |
| 2000- | 10th Revision |
The purpose of the ICD is to promote international comparability in the collection, classification, analysis and presentation of mortality and morbidity statistics. The periodic revisions help the classification to stay abreast of medical advances, both in terms of disease identification and aetiology, and changes in medical terminology.
ICD10
The latest revision (ICD10) was developed by WHO together with nine international collaborating centres for the classification of diseases. These nine centres are based on regional and language groupings.
ICD10 was published in three volumes by WHO in the early 1990s. It incorporated the most fundamental changes to the ICD for almost 50 years and was designed for use well into the 21st century. Despite WHO's recommended implementation date of 1993, its introduction for mortality coding has generally been relatively slow, though a few countries did start to use it in the mid-1990s. It was introduced in Scotland in 2000 and in England and Wales in 2001. and Northern Ireland also plan to code 2001 deaths using ICD10. In many countries ICD10 was used for morbidity coding from an earlier date, in Scotland's case from 1996.
WHO have no immediate plans to develop an Eleventh Revision. Instead they have set up review groups that consider possible changes on a case by case basis and advise on amendments to the classification on a more regular basis. It therefore is likely that the development of the ICD will be more evolutionary in future and that the current ICD10 will be the core of the classification well into the 21st century.
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