FOI Reference: FOI/2022/3734
You asked
How many deaths have been caused by ischemic heart disease since January 2020 till present?
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
We hold mortality data for England and Wales, based on the information collected at death registration. All of the conditions mentioned on the death certificate are coded using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). From all of these causes an underlying cause of death is selected using ICD-10 coding rules. The underlying cause of death is defined by WHO as:
a) the disease or injury that initiated the train of events directly leading to death, or
b) the circumstances of the accident or violence that produced the fatal injury.
Ischaemic heart disease is defined using ICD-10 codes I20-I25, these are a subcategory of Chapter IX 'Diseases of the circulatory system' which is defined using ICD-10 codes I00-I99.
2020
Death registrations for England and Wales are available to download via NOMIS. This is an interactive web service that provides numbers of deaths and rates broken down by year of registration (2013 to 2020), age group, sex and area of usual residence.
The number of deaths in England and Wales due to ischemic heart disease in 2020 was 55,807.
To create your own bespoke tabulations of mortality data within NOMIS, please follow these instructions:
- Select Geography, choose Countries ALL for England and Wales including non-residents or specific countries. Local authority level is available, please use the search bar to select.
- Click Date and tick required dates or ALL for 2013-2020 range.
- NOMIS automatically selects total ages, if you require Age disaggregation please tick the selected 5-year age bands.
- NOMIS automatically selects number of deaths, if you require rates or percentages please tick this manually.
- NOMIS automatically selects Total, if you require disaggregation by sex please tick boxes for male and female.
- Underlying cause -- In the search bar type insert ICD-10 codes. Alternatively, select "ICD-10" list and expand insert starting letter of ICD10 codes (I)** and select manually.
- Click format if you require CSV download, if you require Excel format you do not need to follow this step.
- Click Download the data.
2021
Unfortunately, we do not hold analysis on deaths specifically from ischemic heart disease that were registered in 2021. This will be published in July 2022 to allow the inclusion of late registrations, which are deaths which have been referred for coroner investigation.
As such, mortality information from ischemic heart disease for 2021 is exempt under Section 22(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, whereby information is exempt from release if there is a view to publish the information in the future. Furthermore, as a central government department and producer of official statistics, we need to have the freedom to be able to determine our own publication timetables. This is to allow us to deal with the necessary preparation, administration and context of publications. It would be unreasonable to consider disclosure when to do so would undermine our functions.
This exemption is subject to a public interest test. We recognise the desirability of information being freely available and this is considered by ONS when publication schedules are set in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics. The need for timely data must be balanced against the practicalities of applying statistical skill and judgement to produce the high quality, assured data needed to inform decision-making. If this balance is incorrectly applied, then we run the risk of decisions being based on inaccurate data which is arguably not in the public interest. This will have an impact on public trust in official statistics in a time when accuracy of official statistics is more important to the public than ever before.
If you wish to obtain this data sooner, we may be able to produce this for you as a bespoke request using provisional data. However, please note this will be subject to change. Special extracts and tabulations of mortality data for England and Wales are available to order (subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreements of costs, where appropriate). Such enquiries can be made to: Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.