Conditions associated with Huntington's disease at death. A case-control study.

To identify conditions associated with reduced survival in patients with Huntington's disease, we studied all 1978 US death certificates on which Huntington's disease (331.0 in the International Classification of Diseases, eighth revision) was listed. For each of the 495 cases identified, two control deaths were matched by age, race, sex, county, and year of death. Pneumonia, choking, nutritional deficiencies, and chronic skin ulcers were increased in cases relative to controls.