One of the efforts to maintain the tradition of progress in the classification of diseases has Izccn the practice, begun in 1900, to revise about every 10 years what is now the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). Each of these revisions has produced some break in the com­ parability of cause-of-death statistics. The Ninth Revision produced many changes, including shifts of inclusion terms and titles from one category, section, or chapter to another; regrouping of diseases; new titles and sections; and modifica­ tions in coding rules, As a result there are serious breaks in comparability for a number of causes of death. Measures of this discontinuity are essential to interpretation of mortality trends. R:itios of comparability between the Eighth and Ninth Revisions have been computed for this purpose. This supplement to the Monthly Vital Statistics Report (MVSR) presents compa­rability ratios for the causes or groups of causes of death for which data are published regularly in the MVSR. mv28_11s.pdf

Stephen B. Thacker CDC Library collection