Umieralność z przyczyn nieznanych i niedokładnie określonych oraz jej trwałe zróżnicowanie terytorialne w Polsce

An effective health policy can be only conducted on the basis of complete and up-to-date statistical data referring to, among others, causes of deaths. The share of deaths due to unknown and ill-defined causes constitutes one of quality indicators of data on mortality. As compared to other European countries, in Poland this share is relatively high, especially in some regions of the country. Presented analysis is devoted to spatial differences of mortality due to unknown and ill-defined causes in 1991–1995 and 2006–2010. Despite the introduction of the 10th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, as well as despite the modernization of data collecting system in 1997, spatial differences remained at a constant and moderate level, which probably results from the prevalence of local coding practices. We propose possible solutions that could contribute to decrease in share of death due to unknown and ill-defined causes in Poland, among them standardization of local coding procedures concerning causes of death