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Overview
Accurate information about mortality status and death date are important in a wide range of research investigations. Investigators needing vital status information (i.e., mortality status and death dates) have multiple sources available to them. A commonly used file is VBA's BIRLS Death File (BIRLS). For veterans who die during an inpatient stay in a VA hospital, reseaechers can use the Medical SAS Inpatient Datasets to ascertain mortality and death dates. Researchers also have access to the Medicare Vital Status File as part of the VA-Medicare Data Merge Initiative. This file contains all veterans ever enrolled in Medicare and contains the death dates reported to Medicare. The fourth source is the Social Security Administration's Death Master File (SSA Death Master File), which is available to researchers at the Corporate Franchise Datacenter (CFD). The VA Vital Status Files incorporate information from these four sources.
Comparison of Mortality Data Sources
The HSR&D research community considers the National Death Index (NDI) the gold standard for mortality ascertainment since the National Center for Health Statistics obtaines its information directly from death certificates. The table below shows the agreement between the NDI and the BIRLS Death File, Medical SAS, Medicare VItal Status File, SSA Death Master File and VA Vital Status File.
| Comparison of Mortality Data Sources Available to VA Researchers |
| VA Source |
How Complete is this source of death dates? |
How accurate is this source of death dates? |
| |
(% of deaths from NDI found in the source)
|
(% of death dates matching NDI death date)
|
| BIRLS Death File |
77.4%
|
97.3%
|
| Medical SAS Inpatient Datasets |
12.0%
|
100.0%
|
| Medicare Vital Status |
83.2%
|
96.3%
|
| SSA Death Master File |
92.1%
|
95.9%
|
| VA Vital Status Files |
98.3%
|
98.3%
|
The VHA derives the VA Vital Status Files, in part, based on a data quality investigation by VIReC that compared vital status data in the BIRLS Death File, Medical SAS, Medicare Vital Status File, and SSA Death Master File to the NDI. The VIReC investigation concluded that accurate vital status information for veterans could be obtained by combining the sources of vital status data currently available in the VA (see VIReC Technical Report #2). The VA Vital Status Files incorporate an algorithm to determine the "best" date of death when the sources contain conflicting data.
Cause of Death
Cause of death information obtained from death certificates are not available from the VA but can be obtained for research purposes from the National Death Index (NDI).
Resources
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