Science

Decomposed bodies found at home are on the rise in England and Wales

The fact that people dying at home are going unnoticed for long periods of time points to issues with social support networks, say the researchers
The fact that people dying at home are going unnoticed for long periods of time points to issues with social support networks, say the researchers

Despite overall improved mortality rates, the number of people found at home so decomposed that it is impossible to determine their cause of death is on the rise in parts of the UK. A new study led by University of Oxford researchers tries to parse the cause.

The study examined data from the UK's Office of National Statistics (ONS). To comb through the records and arrive at decomposition numbers, the researchers used two proxy codes assigned to deaths via the WHO's International Classification of Diseases. One is code R98, which stands for "unattended deaths." The other is R99, which stands for "other ill-defined and unknown causes of mortality," which is the only code that can be applied when a death is indicated as decomposed or unascertained.

Reasoning that these two codes could stand in as a proxy to identify badly decomposed bodies found at home, the researchers say that if someone died in a hospital, it would be highly unlikely that the cause of death would be unknown. Also, they say that if a dead body was discovered outside the home, the result would likely be some kind of trauma, which a post-mortem could ascertain. Still, the research team does acknowledge the limits of using this coding as a proxy for their research.

"To our knowledge, the ICD-10 codes R98 and R99 (and equivalents) have not previously been used as a proxy for severe decomposition," wrote the researchers in a paper that's been published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. "These codes will miss those cases where the body is decomposed but with postmortem findings, which can still establish a defined cause of death," they added. "However, we cannot say with certainty that these codes are a good proxy for advanced decomposition."

That being said, using the proxy codes, the researchers did uncover a steady rise in the number of undefined deaths due to decomposition during the 41-year study period. Men were almost twice as likely to be found in a decomposed state. Men also saw a higher spike in this category particularly in the 1990s and 2000s, even though overall mortality rates were improving at the time.

The study also found that deaths at home across all ages climbed from about 0.15% of deaths from all causes to just over 0.3%, and undefined deaths just about quadrupled during the study period.

The researchers conclude that the rise in undefined deaths as a result of corpses going undiscovered for long periods of time points to issues of societal neglect and isolation.

“Many people would be shocked that someone can lie dead at home for days, weeks or even longer, without anyone raising an alarm among the community they live in,” said study co-author Theodore Estrin-Serlui from Imperial College NHS Healthcare Trust. “The increase in people found dead and decomposed suggests wider societal breakdowns of both formal and informal social support networks even before the pandemic. They are concerning and warrant urgent further investigation.”

Source: Sage via EurekAlert

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3 comments
Jinpa
A friend used to develop a neighbor-alert network which was as simple as watching for window blinds being opened by a certain time each morning. If that didn't happen someone would go visit, to make sure the person or people there were OK and just forgot to make that signal. Maybe Brits are too standoffish to participate?
Karmudjun
I don't have any nosey neighbors watching for the blinds to go up - and my brother at 67 died in his sleep a day or two after having visited with several of my sisters. His routine was to call ever week or so and chat with one sister in particular. About a week after he died, my "matriarchal" sister started leaving messages on his cell phone and after a few days of no answer, she and her husband went to check on him. They discovered his partially decomposed body in his own bed, his neighborhood was "transitional" so no one was really interested in what their neighbors were up to.
John
Out here, neighborhoods are broken, in my current neighborhood in populous Silicon Valley, has renters and homeowners, multigenerational and roommates. No one talks. Many are Chinese, Indian, and elsewhere, the only activity you see is taking the kids to school. Everyone works from home and doesn't go out, it was getting bad before Covid but is ow a ghost town - of which there are 'ghost houses' purchased by Wall Street and Chinese investors, and just left empty, as prices shoot over$2 million.

If died, the only possibility would be for tax assessor to send a patrol car a year later, police wouldn't go out, too busy fining people disrespecting pronouns. CA is done.