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An analysis of mortality follow‐up through the national death index for a cohort of refinery and petrochemical workers
Author(s) -
Acquavella J. F.,
Donaleski D.,
Hanis N. M.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
american journal of industrial medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.7
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1097-0274
pISSN - 0271-3586
DOI - 10.1002/ajim.4700090209
Subject(s) - medicine , cohort , national death index , demography , cohort study , environmental health , cause of death , gerontology , index (typography) , disease , confidence interval , hazard ratio , sociology , world wide web , computer science
Along with our submission to the National Death Index (NDI) of a cohort of more than 23,000 petrochemical and refinery workers, we included 1,449 known U.S. deaths to determine the completeness of death ascertainment through the NDI. A number of factors that may affect follow‐up were examined including sex, race, age, and reporting area. Overall, NDI detected 97.1% of known deaths. Follow‐up was slightly better for males (97.2%) than for females (92.0%) and was significantly better for whites (97.6%) than for nonwhites (92.0%). Analyses by reporting area showed very complete follow‐up from all locations (93.4%–100%) except for the New York City area (71.4%). These findings indicate that NDI is an extremely useful source for vital status follow‐up, though follow‐up may be somewhat less complete for certain subgroups of an occupational study cohort.