Determining occupation for National Violent Death Reporting System records: An evaluation of autocoding programs

Background Suicide is a leading cause of death for working-age adults. Suicide risk varies across occupations. The National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) collects information about violent deaths occurring in the United States. Occupation can be determined using autocoding programs with NVDRS data. The objective of this analysis is to determine the accuracy of autocoding programs for assigning occupations in the NVDRS. Methods Deaths from suicide were identified in NVDRS for individuals age 16 and older from 2010 to 2017. Occupations were assigned after processing job description free text with autocoding programs. Job assigned by autocoding program were compared with the occupation code recorded on the death certificate. Results Assignment of major occupation group had substantial agreement (Cohen's kappa > 0.7) for the two autocoding programs evaluated. Agreement of assigned code varied across race/ethnicity and occupation type. Conclusions Autocoding programs provide an efficient method for identifying the occupation for decedents in NVDRS data. By identifying occupation, circumstances of suicide and rates of suicide can be studied across occupations.