Board of Scientific Counselors - Presentations

September 17-18, 2007

Back to September 2007 Presentations

NCHS Mortality Linkage Program

PowerPoint PresentationCdc-ppt [PPT, 815 KB]

Slide 1

NCHS Mortality Linkage Program

• Designed to maximize the scientific value of the NCHS population-based surveys
• Enables researchers to examine the association of a variety of health factors with mortality, using the richness of NCHS health surveys

Slide 2

Background: Linked Mortality
Public-use Data Release

• Risk of respondent re-identification prevented public-use release of linked mortality data files
• Based upon BSC recommendation, conducted disclosure risk analyses
• Developed data perturbation strategy to protect respondent identity, while maintaining statistical validity

NOTES: Due to confidentiality protections of the NHIS participants, the NHIS Linked Mortality Files were made available only through the NCHS Research Data Center (RDC). Recognizing that this would place restrictions on researchers’ use of previously highly utilized public-use data files, NCHS has developed a data perturbation plan to allow for the continued public-use release of linked mortality data. The data release plan was developed to eliminate re-identification of survey participants and maximize the amount of data to be included in the release, and limit the amount of synthetic data introduced to the data file.

Slide 3

Summary NCHS Linked Mortality Data Files

Slide 4

Supporting Documentation for Linked Mortality Data

• File layouts
• Matching methodology reports
• Analytic guidelines
• Comparative analysis of the public-use and restricted-use data
• Guide to weighting and variance estimation (NHIS)
• Sample input statements for SAS & STATA for Public-use Linked Mortality Files

Slide 5

Access our webpage from the NCHS homepage

Slide 6

NCHS Data Linkage Activities

• SELECT MORTALITY BY TOPIC AREA AND SEE LIST OF ALL SURVEYS LINKED TO MORTALITY
• OR SELECT DATA BY SPECIFIC NCHS SURVEY
• FROM THE SURVEY SPECIFIC PAGE, ANALYSTS CAN DOWNLOAD THE PUBLIC DATA OR GET INFORMATION REGARDING THE RESTRICTED FILES

Slide 7 through 8

Background: Linked Mortality Public-use Data Release

• Problem/Issue
  • Risk of respondent disclosure prevented a public-use release of previously highly utilized mortality linked data files
  • BSC recommendation to study ways to release public-use linked mortality files
• Solution
  • Conducted disclosure risk analyses to determine extent of NCHS respondent re-identification risk
  • Developed perturbation strategy to ensure protection of respondent identity, while maintaining statistical validity
  • Cleared by NCHS Disclosure Review Board