HC Deb 24 May 2004 vol 421 cc1370-1W
Mrs. Iris Robinson

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many sudden cardiac deaths there were in each of the last five years, broken down by age range; and if he will make a statement. [175164]

Ruth Kelly

I have been asked to reply.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.

Letter from Colin Mowl to Mrs. Iris Robinson, dated 24 May 2004:

The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many sudden cardiac deaths there were in each of the last five years broken down by age range. I am replying in his absence. (175164)

It is not possible to give an exact number of cardiac deaths which occurred suddenly, as information on whether or not a death was sudden is not currently recorded at death registration. We have therefore provided figures for all heart diseases, sudden cardiac death (so described), acute ischaemic heart disease and cardiac arrhythmias.

The latest year for which data are available is 2002. Figures are shown in the attached table for each year from 1998 to 2002.

Number of deaths from (a) all heart diseases, (b) sudden cardiac death, so described, (c) acute ischaemic heart disease and (d) cardiac arrhythmics1, by age England and Wales, 1998 to 20022
Cause of death Age
0–14 15–44 45–64 65–84 85+
(a) All heart diseases
1998 101 1,775 17,332 86,487 41,719
1999 104 1,748 16,470 82,090 41,169
2000 89 1,702 15,756 76,195 39,822
20013 96 1,680 14,952 73,047 40,906
20023 81 1,712 14,355 70,775 41,194
(b) Sudden cardiac death, so described
1998 4 4 4 4 4
1999 4 4 4 4 4
2000 4 4 4 4 4
20013 0 6 4 1 1
20023 0 4 1 5 0
(c) Acute ischaemic heart disease
1998 4 621 8,017 38,395 13,597
1999 3 579 7,435 34,899 12,917
2000 1 555 6,694 31,470 12,292
20013 4 552 6,184 28,879 11,306
20023 1 553 5,928 27,875 11,453
(d) Cardiac arrhythmias
1998 13 46 99 1,526 1,405
1999 6 49 110 1,528 1,546
2000 5 50 133 1,409 1,554
20013 10 50 84 1,348 1,625
20023 5 40 75 1,365 1,764
1 The cause of death was defined using the ICD-9 for the years 1998 to 2000, and ICD-10 for 2001 and 2002. The codes used are listed below:

All heart diseases ICD-10 120–151, ICD-9 410–429

Sudden cardiac death, so described ICD-10 146.1, ICD-9 no equivalent code

Acute ischaemic heart disease ICD-10 121, 124, ICD-9 410–411

Cardiac arrhythmias ICD-10 144–149, ICD-9 426–427.

2 Figures are based on deaths occurring in each calendar year.
3 The introduction of ICD-10 for coding cause of death in 2001 means that data for heart diseases are not completely comparable between ICD-9 and ICD-10. In particular there is no equivalent code for I46.1—Sudden cardiac death (so described). Any sudden changes in the above figures in 2001 should therefore be interpreted with caution. An article describing the changes to circulatory diseases in more detail is due to be published in Health Statistics Quarterly on May 27. (Griffiths C, Brock A and Rooney C (2004) The effect of the introduction of ICD-10 on mortality from circulatory diseases in England and Wales. Health Statistics Quarterly 22, in press.
4 Figures only available from 2001, after the introduction of the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) for coding cause of death.