title: Do inferences about mortality rates and disparities vary by source of mortality information?
abstract: Researchers who study mortality among survey participants have multiple options for obtaining information about which participants died (and when and how they died). Some use public record and commercial databases; others use the National Death Index; some use the Social Security Death Master File; and still others triangulate sources and use Internet searches and genealogic methods. We ask how inferences about mortality rates and disparities depend on the choice of source of mortality information.
  
  
  
  Using data on a large, nationally representative cohort of people who were first interviewed as high school sophomores in 1980 and for whom we have extensive identifying information, we describe mortality rates and disparities through about age 50 using four separate sources of mortality data. We rely on cross-tabular and multivariate logistic regression models.
  
  
  
  These sources of mortality information often disagree about which of our panelists died by about age 50 and also about overall mortality rates. However, differences in mortality rates (i.e., by sex, race/ethnicity, education) are similar across of sources of mortality data.
  
  
  
  Researchers' source of mortality information affects estimates of overall mortality rates but not estimates of differential mortality by sex, race and/or ethnicity, or education.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Electronic address: warre046@umn.edu.
authors.forename: John Robert
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Warren
authors.affiliation: NORC at the University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
authors.forename: Carolina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Milesi
authors.affiliation: NORC at the University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Grigorian
authors.affiliation: Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Austin.
authors.forename: Melissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Humphries
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, University of Texas-Austin, Austin.
authors.forename: Chandra
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Muller
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Grodsky
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods*; D019992:Databases as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality; D014798:Vital Statistics; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Death records; Differential mortality; Mortality rate; Survey methods