Assessment of the coding of ESKD in deaths and hospitalisation data: a working paper

Monitoring the impact of end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) is important in planning for future health needs of the population. This working paper uses linked data from Western Australia and New South Wales to assess the likelihood that a patient who is hospitalised with ESKD will have ESKD recorded on their death record, in order to establish whether mortality records in Australia reflect the actual disease pattern of people with ESKD. The study confirms that the ESKD codes used in the mortality data to estimate ESKD incidence are likely to underestimate the impact of ESKD—there is a high proportion of patients who are hospitalised with ESKD who do not have ESKD recorded on their death certificates.