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| Sponsor: | U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)/National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute (NCI); National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI); National Institute on Aging (NIA); National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS); and the U.S. Census Bureau |
| Description: | The National Longitudinal Mortality Study (NLMS) examines the effects of demographic and socio-economic characteristics on differentials in mortality. The NLMS is a unique research database in that it is based on a random sample of the non-institutionalized population of the United States. Records from the Annual Social and Economic Supplement, and the Census Current Population Surveys (CPS) are matched to mortality information from death certificates available for deceased persons through NCHS. Extensive demographic, social, economic, and occupation information is collected in the CPS. The study currently consists of approximately 2.3 million records with over 250,000 identified mortality cases. |
| Relevant Policy Issues: | Measurement of Health Status, Key Health Disparities, and Factors Contributing to Measured Health Disparities. |
| Data Type(s): | Registry |
| Unit of Analysis: | Individual |
| Identification of AI/AN/NA: | Most of the race information in the NLMS is based on the CPS. |
| AI/AN/NA Population in Data Set: | Based on frequencies provided for each file (for years 1979 through 1998) in the public use data file reference manual, there are 19,779 American Indians/Alaska Natives (AI/AN) and 1,504 Native Hawaiians/Other Pacific Islanders (NH/PI) in this file. For years 1992 through 1998, the average number of AI/AN in the data files are 848 and 220 for NH/PI persons. |
| Geographic Scope: | The geographic scope of the study is national. Geographic indicators available for analysis include region, state, county, urban status, and SMA status. |
| Date or Frequency: | Data files linking Census data to death certificate information are available for 1973-2002. |
| Data Collection Methodology: | Census data are linked to mortality information obtained from death certificates available for deceased persons through the NCHS. |
| Participation: | This is a secondary data linkage and does not require participation by individual respondents. |
| Strengths: | Data are collected on key policy issues, including health. There are multiple years of data available. The linkage of the individual social and economic data with the mortality outcomes provides the resource for extensive analysis. |
| Limitations: | The study is based on specific survey months of the CPS, the Annual Social and Economic Supplement, and a subset of the 1980 Census. These are one-time data collection processes with no subsequent data collection. Therefore, one limitation of NLMS data is that they provide a one-time only baseline measurement of subjects in a long-term follow-up situation. Another limitation of these data is that, although the CPS and Census instruments provide extensive data collection capabilities in specific subject matter areas, desirable general or specific health information is not collected and smoking status is available only on a limited number of records. |
| Access Requirements and Use Restrictions: | A public use data file is available. Potential users must submit a data
use agreement to the NHLBI. Data use agreement form can be found at:
http://www.census.gov/nlms/docs/form.doc.
Research access to the entire NLMS database may be arranged through the principal investigators of the NLMS sponsoring agencies. |
| Contact Information: | Project Main Website:
http://www.census.gov/nlms/index.html
Norman J. Johnson |
| Reports of Interest: | The NLMS website provides a list of published articles based all or in part on either the full NLMS database or the NLMS public-use file. The URL for this bibliography is: http://www.census.gov/nlms/bibliography.html. |
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