A comparison of death certificate out-of-hospital coronary heart disease death with physician-adjudicated sudden cardiac death.

The number of deaths due to out-of-hospital coronary heart disease as determined by death certificates was compared with the number physician-adjudicated sudden cardiac deaths in the Framingham Heart Study from 1950 to 1999. Out-of-hospital coronary heart disease deaths overestimated sudden cardiac death by 47%, suggesting that out-of-hospital coronary heart disease death rates derived from death certificates should be interpreted with caution.