Comparison between drug-related deaths data from special and general mortality registers in Austria. Implications for monitoring and policy making

Austria has a high quality Special Register (SR) on drug related deaths (DRD) as well as a General Mortality Register (GMR). The SR combines several data sources (Ministry of the Interior, health authorities of the federal states) including the GMR. Whereas GMR is only based on ICD-10 codes, the SR collects and analyses all available autopsy reports. The stratified DRD data from the SR and the GMR are transmitted annually to the EMCDDA. Historic analysis of the data show slight deviations between SR and GMR. A case study was conducted to link the 2 database and cross-check SR and GMR for 2017. The validity and completeness of the GMR will be discussed.