Role Identification of Causes of Death Algorithm (RICoDA)

This analysis tool was developed for identifying the roles of causes of death on a death certificate from multiple cuase mortality data. The tool assigns a “role” to each entry on the death certificate. It distinguishes between the following roles:

• originating (o), when the condition has initiated a sequence of events leading directly to death;
• precipitating (p), when it was caused by an originating condition or one of its consequences;
• associated (a), when it contributed to death but was not part of the direct sequence leading to death;
• ill-defined (i), i.e., conditions such as symptoms or signs or poorly informative causes.

The tool uses an algorithm based on the WHO coding rules for the selection of the underlying cause and uses a list of valid codes from the 2019 version of the ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases, 10^th Revision). Data coded using an earlier version of ICD-10 can also be analysed using the following program, but codes that are invalid for 2019 will be converted to other codes that are valid in 2019 version of ICD-10.

Further details are reported in the instructions included in the download package and in the following research paper:

Grippo F, Frova L, Pappagallo M, Barbieri M, Trias-Llimós S, Egidi V, Meslé F, Désesquelles A. Beyond the underlying cause of death: an algorithm to study multi-morbidity at death. Popul Health Metr. 2024 Dec 18;22(1):36. doi: 10.1186/s12963-024-00356-8. PMID: 39696432; PMCID: PMC11653578.

With the download of this tool, a license agreement originates between you and BfArM. You thereby commit to adhere to our terms and conditions for downloading.

For more information about this tool and the Iris software, please contact the Iris Institute.

E-mail: Iris Institute