Obscuring effect of coding developmental disability as the underlying cause of death on mortality trends for adults with developmental disability: a cross-sectional study using US Mortality Data from 2012 to 2016

Abstract

Death certificates that recorded the developmental disability in Part I of the death certificate were more likely to code disability as the underlying cause of death. While revising these death certificates provides a short-term corrective to mortality trends for this population, the severity and extent of this problem warrants a long-term change involving more precise instructions to record developmental disabilities only in Part II of the death certificate.