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Completeness and Accuracy of Death Dates and the Implications for Studying Disease Burdens: Focus on Alternative Data Sources

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Handbook of Disease Burdens and Quality of Life Measures

Abstract:

Death dates comprise a critical piece of mortality data for studying disease burden. This paper reviews various sources of death dates available for disease burden studies and evaluates them in terms of their completeness and accuracy. Civil registration systems are the most frequently used sources of dates and causes of death for Global Burden of Disease studies and other studies of population health. A review of the mortality data submitted to the World Health Organization suggests that tremendous variations in the completeness and coverage exist from country to country and large improvements in the quality of civil registration systems are still to be achieved. For studies of disease burden that require person-level data, not only the civil registration systems but some alternative sources can be utilized. These alternative sources may not have the completeness and accuracy of the data from the civil registration systems, but when they are combined judiciously they can be a valuable source of death dates that can match the civil registration system in completeness and accuracy.

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Abbreviations

BIRLS:

the VA beneficiary identification and record locator subsystem

CMS:

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

DALY:

disability-adjusted life year

GBD:

global burden of disease

NCHS:

National Center for Health Statistics

NDI:

national death index

PPV:

positive predictive value

ResDAC:

Research Data Assistance Center

SSA:

Social Security Administration

VA:

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

WHO:

World Health Organization

YLD:

years of life lost due to disability

YLL:

years of life lost due to premature mortality

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Authors
  1. Min-Woong Sohn
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  2. Elissa Oh
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Nutrition and Dietetics Nutritional Sciences Research Division School of Biomedical & Health Sciences, King's College London, Franklin‐Wilkins Building 150 Stamford Street, SE1 9NH, London, UK

    Victor R. Preedy (Prof.) (Prof.)

  2. Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, Health Science Center 1295 N. Martin, P.O. Box 245155, 85724-5155, Tucson, AZ

    Ronald R. Watson (Prof.) (Prof.)

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Sohn, MW., Oh, E. (2010). Completeness and Accuracy of Death Dates and the Implications for Studying Disease Burdens: Focus on Alternative Data Sources. In: Preedy, V.R., Watson, R.R. (eds) Handbook of Disease Burdens and Quality of Life Measures. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-78665-0_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-78665-0_19

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-387-78664-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-387-78665-0

  • eBook Packages: MedicineReference Module Medicine

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