Our Reference: FOI00872/Block/QE1

You have asked whether we can you tell you the number of people that have
died as a result of Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome or Sudden Adult Death
Syndrome in the past 5 years in the UK and also in London? ONS only holds
mortality data for England and Wales. Figures for Scotland and Northern
Ireland are held by the Registrars General for those countries.

In England and Wales, deaths that are sudden and of unknown cause must be
referred to the coroner for investigation. It is the responsibility of the
coroner to undertake any necessary investigations to ascertain the cause of
death and to record the findings. If a specific pathology or disease
process is identified at post mortem (eg myocardial infarction, cardiac
conduction defect), the coroner should write it on the death certificate.
ONS will then use this information to code the cause of death, using the
most precise and accurate code available for the identified condition.

If the post mortem does not reveal a cause, then there has to be an
inquest. If, after investigation, the coroner certifies the death as due to
sudden adult death syndrome, or states that the death was sudden and no
cause could be identified, it is coded to R96 in the tenth revision of the
International Statistical Classification of Diseases. These deaths are
counted as sudden adult deaths.

Whether a death was sudden, or not, is not systematically recorded at death
certification or registration. Information about the reasons why deaths
were reported to the coroner is not collected, only the outcome of the
coroner's investigation. Therefore the only deaths that we can classify as
sudden are those coded to the ICD-10 code I46.1 "sudden cardiac death, so
described" or R96, "sudden death, cause unknown". These codes cannot be
used if any more specific diagnosis has been found and mentioned on the
certificate. So we can only identify the very small number in which no
clear diagnosis could be found through post mortem and inquest.

The numbers of deaths registered in England and Wales in each year, for all
causes (including those mentioned above), is freely available and is
published on the ONS website:
www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.a...

The table in the attached Excel sheet present the numbers of deaths from
sudden cardiac death, and sudden death, cause unknown, for England and
Wales, and London government office region, 2004 to 2008 (the latest year
available).

(See attached file: Sudden Adult-Arrhythmic Death Syndrome FINAL.xls)

You have the right to have this response to your freedom of information
request reviewed internally by an internal review process and, if you
remain unhappy with the decision, by the Information Commissioner. If you
would like to have the decision reviewed please write to Stephen Penneck,
Office for National Statistics, Room 1127, Government Buildings, Cardiff
Road, Newport, Gwent, NP10 8XG.

If you have any queries about this email, please contact me. Please
remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

Regards,

Paul Wearn LLB (Hons)
Legal Services
For the latest data on the economy and society consult National Statistics at http://www.statistics.gov.uk

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