Manner of Death
https://publicschema.org/vocab/crvs/manner-of-death
How a death occurred, as distinct from its underlying medical cause. Aligned with WHO/ICD Manner of Death classification.
Standard reference
WHO/ICD Manner of Death classification (https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/classification-of-diseases)
Category labels follow civil-registration convention, which diverges from the WHO/ICD death-certificate term of art in two places. (1) The WHO medical-certificate guidance uses "disease" for the category this vocabulary codes as `natural`; the WHO running prose pairs them ("an entry of 'disease' as the manner of death corresponds to a natural death"), and CRVS systems (OpenCRVS, national registrars) use "natural" as the published label. The code's definition names both. (2) The WHO list includes "unknown"; this vocabulary uses `could_not_be_determined` (post investigation) and `pending_investigation` (investigation ongoing) for the same semantic ground. Adopters are expected to map WHO "unknown" to `could_not_be_determined`.
Aligned standards
| Standard | Equivalent | Match |
|---|---|---|
| OpenCRVS v2 event service | DeathRegistration.mannerOfDeath (country-configured) | none |
| The field is an untyped String; values are defined at country-deployment time (e.g. Farajaland uses NATURAL_CAUSES/ACCIDENT/SUICIDE/HOMICIDE/MANNER_UNDETERMINED, which collapses several WHO/ICD categories). | ||
Values
| Code | Label | Standard code | Definition |
|---|---|---|---|
natural | Natural | Death due to disease or the natural aging process, without external intervention. | |
accident | Accident | Death caused by an unintentional external event. | |
intentional_self_harm | Intentional self-harm | Death resulting from an act intentionally inflicted by the deceased on themselves (suicide). | |
assault | Assault | Death caused by the intentional act of another person (homicide). | |
legal_intervention | Legal intervention | Death caused by law enforcement or other legally authorized action. | |
war | War | Death caused by acts of war or armed conflict. | |
pending_investigation | Pending investigation | The manner of death has not yet been determined because an investigation is ongoing. | |
could_not_be_determined | Could not be determined | After investigation, the manner of death could not be established. |
Referenced by this vocabulary
- FHIR VRDR Health Level Seven International (HL7)
- UN Vital Stats Rev.3 United Nations Statistics Division, 2014
- WHO Manner of Death World Health Organization