The 2015 Indiana Mortality Report provides a
summary of all the deaths of residents of Indiana during 2015 classified by the
International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) cause of death code. Summary tables have also been
developed for each county and selected cities within Indiana. The information
provided in these tables is intended for health professionals, students,
legislators, and others interested in the health status of the Indiana
community.
The 2015 Indiana Mortality Report uses the ICD-10 coding system to classify and group causes of death. The ICD-9 coding system was in use from 1978 to
1998. Although these two systems have much in common, causes of death in this report are exactly
comparable to causes of death since 1999, but not to causes in previous reports.
The 2015 Indiana Mortality Report also uses the 2000
standard million population to age-adjust the mortality rates. Reports before 1999
used the 1940 standard million population. Consequently, rates in this report are
comparable to rates since 1999, but not to rates in previous reports. State-level rates based on the 2000 standard million population
were calculated for 113 selected causes of death for the years 1995-1998 and are available in
Table 1a of the
1999 Indiana Mortality Report.
Information is provided to the State on each
cause of death under the authority of Indiana Code 16-37-1-3.
The leading causes of death and populations of interest
are provided in the tables within the Highlights section.
The intent of this publication is to provide information to assess the changing health status
of the community,
to develop resources and interventions in areas of need, and to improve modifiable
health risk behaviors for
adverse health conditions.
On January 1, 2008, Indiana began using the 2003 US Standard Certificate of Death. Much of the data collected has stayed the same;
however, categories for marital status, facility type, educational level,
and pregnancy status for females at the time of death have been expanded. Also, a question
is now asked as to whether tobacco use contributed to the death.
Indiana now uses the 1997 Office of Management and Budget (OMB) standards for collecting data on race and ethnicity.
Starting with the 2008 death certificate, more than one box can be checked
for race of the decedent. All racial and ethnicity information is now sent
to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) which imputes a single
("bridged") race for the decedent based on the combination of races, Hispanic
origin, sex, and age. This "bridged" race is what is used in this report. The relationship between these two OMB standards and the terms used to report race and
ethnicity in this report are as follows: