Cause of death in cerebral palsy: a descriptive study

Background-Cause specific research on death certification in chronic diseas e has rarely involved cerebral palsy. Aims-To evaluate cause of death information in people known to have cerebra l palsy by: describing the cause of death distribution; determining case as certainment using death certification as the data source; and analysing the choice of wording and its arrangement in the "cause of death statement". Study cases and setting-People with early or late impairment cerebral palsy who died by 30 June 1998, on the population based Mersey Cerebral Palsy Re gister born 1966-91 to mothers resident locally. Study design-Descriptive s tudy of the multiply coded cause of death statements from National Health S ervice Central Register flagging. Results-Death certificate copies were acquired for all 282 (13.4%); of the 2102 registered cases who died. Cerebral palsy was the most common "underly ing cause of death" (95 of 282; 33.7%) and was mentioned in a further 61 ca ses. The underlying cause of death was more likely to be cerebral palsy wit h increasingly severe disability and was derived from Part II in 16 of 95 c ases. Conclusions-The potential of death certification for case ascertainment of cerebral palsy is important, but limited, even with multiple cause coding. Mortality data need careful interpretation as a proxy source for examining trends and patterns in cerebral palsy.