Centre for Policy on Ageing



Wanted dead or alive — implication of death classification on longevity
Author(s)	Becca R Levy, Suzanne Kunkel, Kathryn Remmes
Journal title	Research on Aging, vol 26, no 3, May 2004
Pages	pp 317-329
Source	http://www.sagepub.com
Keywords	Death certificates ; Longevity ; Correlation ; United States of America.
Annotation	To determine who is dead or alive, many researchers, policy-makers and corporations in the US have relied on the National Death Index (NDI). This study investigates the impact of using NDI information to establish mortality status on longevity analysis. A community sample of 694 individuals enrolled in the Ohio Longitudinal Study of Aging and Retirement in 1975 participated. The authors compared the survival of two groups of these participants: those for whom death information came from clear matches with NDI, and those for whom death information was based both on NDI information and supplementary information, such as community informants. Those in the expanded group tended to have had significantly shorter survival than those in the strict group. Findings suggest that using limited NDI information alone may falsely increase longevity. Use of NDI offers numerous benefits, but incomplete or inaccurate classification of mortality status may affect study results. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-040909217 A
Classmark	JVL: BGA: 49: 7T
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.