Conditions other than underlying cause of death listed on death certificates provide additional useful information for epidemiologic research

Conditions other than underlying cause of death listed on death certificates may provide useful information for epidemiologic research. We explored this possibility for any mention of diabetes, renal diseases, and pneumonia-influenza-bronchitis on death certificates from the Chicago Western Electric Study. When we used any mention, sufficient numbers of deaths for analyses of risk factor associations with diabetes (N = 47), renal diseases (N = 25), and pneumonia-influenza-bronchitis (N = 59) were available; analyses for these risk factors were not possible using underlying cause of death alone (N = 3, 6, and 16, respectively). Using Cox regression, we observed positive associations of age, systolic blood pressure, serum cholesterol, body mass index, and cigarettes smoked per day with any mention of diabetes or renal disease. Age, systolic blood pressure, and cigarettes smoked per day were positively related to any mention of pneumonia-influenza-bronchitis; serum cholesterol and body mass index were inversely related to this endpoint. Whether we identified cardiovascular disease deaths using underlying cause, other mention, or any mention, the relations of established major risk factors with 25-year mortality were similar.