The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated March 2009:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking for how many deaths of people in each age group malnutrition was given as a cause of death in each of the last 10 years. (267439)
The attached table provides the numbers of deaths in each age group where malnutrition or effects of hunger were mentioned on the death certificate, in England and Wales, for the years 1998 to 2007 (the latest year available).
Deaths (persons) Age group 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Under 1 1 2 5 3 2 2 2 0 2 1 01-04 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 05-09 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 10-14 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 15-19 3 0 2 4 1 2 0 0 2 1 20-24 1 3 2 2 1 2 1 0 0 0 25-29 3 2 3 3 3 1 2 2 0 3 30-34 5 4 3 2 4 6 1 4 2 5 35-39 3 2 7 6 6 2 5 4 7 8 40-44 8 5 5 5 5 8 4 4 7 8 45-49 9 12 10 6 9 12 14 11 9 22 50-54 12 10 9 10 11 15 14 12 21 14 55-59 10 16 13 8 18 14 12 16 22 25 60-64 11 20 22 8 9 26 15 20 17 27 65-69 27 28 27 17 23 15 21 16 32 24 70-74 32 43 32 19 31 24 24 36 35 22 75-79 46 44 55 49 38 44 46 30 52 49 80-84 60 66 41 42 53 36 50 55 48 60 85+ 102 93 88 72 80 71 70 69 88 82 Total 334 351 325 256 294 280 282 280 344 353 1 Cause of death was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) codes 260-269 (malnutrition) and E904.1 (effects of hunger) for the years 1998 to 2000, and the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes E40-E46 (malnutrition) and T73.0 (effects of hunger) for 2001 onwards. Deaths were included where one of these causes was mentioned anywhere on the death certificate. The introduction of ICD-10 in 2001 means that the numbers of deaths from each cause before 2001 are not completely comparable with later years. 2 Figures include deaths of non-residents. 3 Figures are for deaths registered in each calendar year.