Mortality statistics are compiled from death certificates which are filed with the Mississippi Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Records as required by Mississippi state law and regulation. Responsibility for the preparation of death certificates is shared with hospitals, nursing homes and other institutions which provide care or custody, funeral homes, physicians, medical examiners, and medical examiner investigators. Death certificates have been filed with the Mississippi Department of Health since 1912. However, statistical data is currently only available from 1958, and 1980 in MSTAHRS.
Mississippi cooperates with other states in the compilation of death data. Mortality data in MSTAHRS represents deaths of Mississippi residents.
Causes of death were assigned according to both the Ninth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-9) and Tenth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). Coding for deaths occurring from 1980 to 1998 was done using the ICD-9 standard. Deaths from 1999 forward are coded using ICD-10. Because of this change in coding schemes, caution should be used in analyzing trends which span classification revisions. Further information is available in specific ICD codes used in MSTAHRS. Also refer to National Center for Health Statistics for comparability of data between the two ICD coding schemes.
Cause groupings are primarily based on those used by the National Center for Health Statistics.
Results produced from MSTAHARS may not always match those found in tables in the annual Vital Statistics Bulletin. This is particularly true with population based rates. Population data from the U.S. Census Bureau is updated in MSTAHRS when available. Age-adjusted rates are available in MSTAHRS but not published in the annual bulletin.