Incomplete Ascertainment of Mortality in a Nationally Representative Longitudinal Study of Community-Living Older Americans.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In longitudinal studies of older persons, complete ascertainment of mortality is needed to minimize potential biases. To ascertain mortality in the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS), investigators most commonly use its Sensitive files, which include month and year of death on most decedents who had not dropped out of the study. Because losses to follow-up are not insubstantial, ascertainment of mortality is likely incomplete.

Methods

We used linked Medicare data as the reference standard to determine the extent by which mortality is underestimated in NHATS through use of its Sensitive files. Ascertainment of mortality was compared between the 2 strategies over 10 years for 7 608 members of the 2011 cohort and 5 years for 7 498 members of the 2015 coho

SUBMITTER: Gill TM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12269764 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature