WHOMDB data availability

LAST UPDATE: April 15th 2009

The table below lists the the most recent year for which data is available and the ICD code list for all countries included in the WHO Mortality Database.

In the table below:

• Code list: refers to the ICD code list used
• Most recent year: refers to the most recent year for which data is included for the country in the WHOMDB
• Number of years of data: refers to the total number of years for which data is available

Thus, for instance, this revision of the database includes 57 years of data from Japan. The most recent year is ICD10 coded data for 2006.

Note about ICD Code List

The ICD code list has important consequences for the ability to make estimates in the GBD reporting categories.

• ICD 10: Our operational definitions for GBD reporting categories rely heavily on ICD10 (4 digit) based definitions. Several countries in the database use 3-digit ICD10 codes. For the purposes of GBD Injury estimates, this has minor consequences. Thus, in the table below countries that have used ICD10-3 digit are included under the ICD10 category.
• 101: This is a condensed version of ICD10 used by several Eastern European countries. It includes very few categories for injuries and some of the most important injury categories (for e.g. X59) is bundled in an ICD101 category for "other injuries".
• ICD 9: The WHO mortality database only includes ICD9 codes that have been coded using the ICD 9 Basic Tabulation List (ICD9 BTL), which like ICD101 includes very few categories for injuries. Because of the very large number of countries that were coding using ICD9 in the 1990s, this poses a substantial problem for estimating injury incidence for one of the GBD target years of 1995. As a result, the expert group has requested and received access to detailed ICD9 from WHO (via IHME-Seattle) for some of these countries. The countries for which we have access to detailed ICD9 coded data have also been included in the table below.
• ICD 7 and ICD 8: Note that all countries in the database had already started using ICD 9 by 1995 (GBD target year).