FOI Ref: FOI/2022/3956
You asked
Please supply the number of choking related deaths within the UK for 2020 and 2021, including age. The ONS figures do not match what all UK NHS trusts/ambulance services have provided us.
We said
Thank you for your request.
We are responsible for the production of mortality data for England and Wales. Our statistics are driven by information collected from the death certificate at death registration. This may explain why figures differ from those provided by UK NHS trusts/ambulance services.
National Records Scotland (NRS) and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for statistics pertaining to Scotland and Northern Ireland. They can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.
All of the conditions mentioned on the death certificate are coded using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) the coded mortality data available up to end of December 2021 is coded to version 2014 of the ICD10 framework. 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 World Health Organisation (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
2020 data
We have published mortality data by cause for 2013 to 2020 in the explorable dataset available on our NOMIS webservice. This explorable dataset can be used to extract figures where choking was recorded as the underlying cause of death.
The ICD-10 codes which are used to describe deaths due to choking are W79 and W80. Please see the following instructions for using this site.
- Select the geography (England and Wales, regional or by local authority).
- Select date – years available from 2013 to 2020
- Select age – All ages or 5 year age bands.
- Select sex – Total or Male/Female
- Select rates – All deaths, rates or percentage of population for example.
- Select cause of death (ICD10 code search is available). (W79, W80)
- Select format (Excel or CSV for example)
Please note, deaths involving choking may not always be recorded as an underlying cause of death, choking may be recorded on the death certificate as a contributing factor. I.e., An individual suffering with dementia may have had the inability to swallow and therefore choked. The underlying cause would be dementia and the secondary cause would be choking.
We do not currently hold analysis for deaths where choking was mentioned as a contributing factor.
2021 data
We have not produced analysis for 2021 mortality data. This is due to be published on our NOMIS website once the data are finalised in the summer of this year.
However, we can provide the provisional data we hold so far for 2021 as a bespoke request. Additionally, we can also produce analysis of deaths where choking was a contributing factor. 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.
If you would like to discuss this enquiry further, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.