The UK Biobank receives death notifications on a regular basis through linkage to national death registries. In this report we present summary statistics on the most common causes of death within the UK Biobank cohort.
The main cause of death for each participant is identified by the ICD10 code. To align with researcher interests we present summary statistics for grouped ICD10 codes (see Appendix 1). Please visit UKBiobank Showcase website to see numbers of deaths for each unique ICD10 code.
This report includes complete follow-up up to the current UK Biobank censoring date for death registry data.
This document was created on 18 March 2024.
Summary figures of fewer than five participants have been anonymised, per UK Biobank’s guidance on reporting for uncommon and geographical variables. Please refer to the Useful Links section of this page for more information.
Since recruitment, 44197 UK Biobank participants have died, with a mean age at death of 71 years. Men constitute 59% of deaths but are on average 4 months older than women when they die.
Sex | No. | Percent | Mean Age at Death |
---|---|---|---|
F | 18191 | 41 | 70.8 |
M | 26006 | 59 | 71.1 |
The main cause of death for each participant is identified by the ICD10 code. In this analysis we do not consider deaths due to benign cancers.
Figure 1: The 20 most common main causes of death within the UK Biobank cohort
Figure 2: The 20 most common main causes of death within the UK Biobank cohort by sex