Quality of Death Certificate Diagnoses of Arteriosclerotic Heart Disease

arterio¬ sclerotic heart disease (ASHD) based on death rates are numerous.Differences in death rates between ethnic, racial, and social groups have stimulated further prospective and cross sectional studies of cardiovascular disease.The differences between urban and rural areas and among different geographic areas of the United States have generated many hypotheses, a number of which remain unclear at present.The accuracy of the reporting of the underlying cause of death on a death certificate may be poor, and therefore the reliability of reported death rates may be questionable.Differences among geographic areas and between various racial, social, and ethnic groups within com¬ munities can be caused by variations in certi¬ fication of the underlying cause of death by physicians.However, adequate studies to determine whether the large differences in death rates be-