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National Health Interview Survey Linked Mortality Restricted-use Data Files

Data file description

Data availability

Data file technical characteristics

List of variables at a glance

Documentation

Data file description

The updated NHIS Linked Mortality Restricted-use Files provide mortality follow-up data for the NHIS years 1986-2004 from the date of interview through December 31, 2006. Mortality ascertainment is based primarily upon the results from a probabilistic match between NHIS and NDI death certificate records. Each NHIS survey year (1986-2004) is available on a separate data file. Additional death certificate data are available by special request. The NHIS Linked Mortality Restricted-use data files do not contain perturbed data.

Data availability

Due to confidentiality requirements, the NHIS Linked Mortality Restricted-use data are accessible only through the NCHS Research Data Center (RDC). Approved researchers will be able to analyze data from the NHIS Restricted-use Linked Mortality Files in the RDC. All interested researchers must submit a research proposal to the RDC and provide additional justification in the RDC proposal to access special request variables.

Data file technical characteristics

The NHIS Linked Mortality Restricted-use Data Files are available in SAS formats. The following list provides the number of file records per survey.
NHIS 1986 62,052
NHIS 1987 122,859
NHIS 1988 122,310
NHIS 1989 116,929
NHIS 1990 119,631
NHIS 1991 120,032
NHIS 1992 128,412
NHIS 1993 109,671
NHIS 1994 116,179
NHIS 1995 102,467
NHIS 1996 63,402
NHIS 1997 103,477
NHIS 1998 98,785
NHIS 1999 97,059
NHIS 2000 100,618
NHIS 2001 100,761
NHIS 2002 93,386
NHIS 2003 92,148
NHIS 2004 94,460

List of variables at a glance

NHIS Public-use ID

Eligibility status

Final mortality status

Date of death

Age at death

Age when last presumed alive

Underlying cause of death codes (ICD-9 and ICD-10)

Underlying cause of death recodes (ICD-9 and ICD-10)

Multiple cause of death entity axis codes

Multiple cause of death record axis codes

Adjusted sample weights

Date of birth

Date of NHIS interview

Age at NHIS interview

Documentation contents

File layout and detailed notes for selected variables

Underlying and multiple causes of death

This page last reviewed June 04, 2009