Information about fatal injuries comes from the California Department of Health Services Death Statistical Master file. These data come from death certificates that are registered in California each year. EPIC uses this file to describe California residents who die as a result of injury (that is, whose death certificate includes an external cause of injury).

Prior to 1999, the cause of death was coded using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9). Beginning in 1999, deaths are coded using the Tenth revision of the ICD (ICD-10). These two revisions are significantly different. Users need to be aware that changes in the number of specific injuries observed over time may be due to changes in coding practices rather than true changes in causes of death. More information about ICD-10 and the effects of the change in coding can be found in our FAQ or at the National Center for Health Statistics.
As in the hospitalization data, EPIC also excludes cases with unknown age and codes for deaths due to iatrogenic causes (also known as adverse effects of medical care and drugs).

Additional Help

If these pages don't answer your question, or if you need help interpreting data you got from this site, e-mail us at epic@dhs.ca.gov.