Recording and monitoring deaths during heatwaves: A scoping review of mortality attribution and surveillance systems

This paper presents a scoping review of global practices for recording and monitoring heatwave-related mortality, including attribution methods, ICD coding, and integration of real-time surveillance. The review followed Joanna Briggs Institute methodology and the Population–Concept–Context framework. 176 studies from 41 countries were included. The review examined mortality attribution, ICD coding, recording systems, managing agencies, surveillance approaches, heatwave definitions, limitations and recommendations.

The review found that only 8.5% of included studies used heat-specific ICD codes to identify direct heat-related deaths, while real-time mortality monitoring systems were limited, fragmented and inconsistent across jurisdictions. Most mortality information was derived from passive, retrospective systems and more than half of studies did not report any ICD codes. The authors conclude that heatwave-associated deaths are rarely coded as direct heat-related and highlight the need for improved attribution practices