Assessment of Relative Utility of Underlying vs Contributory Causes of Death

Key Points Question What is the relative utility for etiological research of using underlying cause of mortality from death certificates compared with using any field? Findings In 2 large cohort studies with 696 528 participants combined, associations of known risk factors with an array of death outcomes were essentially the same, irrespective of the location of the death data on the certificate. Meaning Our findings have implications for risk factor–end point computations in studies of rarer outcomes and those with smaller sample sizes.