title: Cause-specific mortality among older African-Americans: correlates and consequences of age misreporting.
abstract: This paper examines the quality of age reporting on death certificates of elderly African-Americans by major causes of death. We utilize a sample of death certificates linked to early census records and to Social Security Administration records to establish a "true" age at death. We then examine the patterns, predictors, and consequences of age misreporting for major causes of death. We find a pattern of greater age misreporting among females, identify educational background as a key predictor of accurate age reporting, and show that mortality crossovers are eliminated for most causes of death when more accurate age data are used.
authors.affiliation: Population Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19104, USA.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Hussey
authors.forename: I T
authors.initials: IT
authors.lastname: Elo
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002423:Cause of Death; D005260:Female; D005568:Forms and Records Control; D006801:Humans; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008297:Male; D008498:Medical Record Linkage; D009026:Mortality; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D012306:Risk; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology