Cause of death coding in Switzerland: evaluation based on a nationwide individual linkage of mortality and hospital in-patient records

Cause of death statistics are an important tool for quality control of the health care system. Their reliability, however, is controversial. Comparing death certificates with their corresponding medical records is implemented only occasionally but may point to quality problems. We aimed at exploring the agreement between information in the cause of death statistics and hospital discharge diagnoses at death. Selection of disease categories was...