Most vital statistics and death statistics are legally obligated for public health purposes. As such usually only communicable diseases that could, theoretically, cause an epidemic are "required reporting" obligations of physicians, coroners, and similar professions.

As noncommunicable diseases become the dominant causes of death after public health successes in the control of communicable diseases, the issue becomes more cloudy.

Often a death certificate accurately documents the organ failure (e.g. acute respiratory arrest)...but the cause of the organ failure is not documented; hence we fail to be able to link the pathology with the organ failure and therefore we cannot attribute mortality to specific non-communicable diseases, such as Alzheimer's Disease. Often, also, a chronic condition and treatment like radiation or chemo therapy, so traumatizes the immune system that death is causes by a secondary organ failure....if the death is attributed to the underlying disease is uncertain at best.

In addition, improvements in treatment and early detection will clearly increase the survival rates of many noncommunicable diseases; yet we have scant documentation of morbidity because most such conditions are not reportable vital statistics.

This applies also to problems like gun violence and assault....how many people are hospitalized by brutality but do not die? In most places we have no idea of what this ratio might be.

Dear Professor @Richard L Douglass, thanks for your valuable comments and I think it is clear.

Any time!

The NCD risk is high in a person who has a disability or for e.g a non ambulatory person is more at risk of developing life style oriented diseases.