§ Lynne JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many deaths there were from complications arising from fractured bones in each of the last five years. [78571]
§ Ruth KellyThe answer requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Dr. Lynne Jones, of 4 November 2002:
As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your question asking how many deaths there were from complications arising from fractured bones in each of the last five years. (78571)It is not possible from routinely coded mortality data to obtain figures on complications arising from fractured bones. For deaths where an accident or violence initiated the train of events leading directly to death, a code is assigned to the type of injury sustained by the deceased. The figures below indicate the numbers of deaths where that injury was a fracture.127W
Number of deaths from fractures1, England and Wales, 1997 to 2001 Number of deaths Calendar year2 1997 3,650 1998 3,536 1999 3,613 2000 3,921 20013 4,670 1 The nature of injury was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) codes 800 to 829 for the years 1997 to 2000 and, for the year 2001, the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes S02, 812, S22, S32, S42, S52, 862, 872, 882, 892, T02, T08, T10, T12, T14.2. 2 Figures are for deaths occurring in each calendar year 3 The introduction of ICD-10 for coding cause of death in 2001 means that data for fractures in this year are not comparable with data for earlier years. The introduction of ICD-10 has led to an apparent increase of 17% in the number of deaths coded to fractures. The figures should therefore be interpreted with caution. The effect of the change in classification in 2001 is described in a report published in May 2002.i
i Office for National Statistics. Results of the ICD-10 bridge coding study, England and Wales, 1999. Health Statistics Quarterly 14 (2002), 75–83.