NCHS has linked various surveys with death certificate records from the National Death Index (NDI). Linkage of the NCHS survey participants with the NDI mortality data provides the opportunity to conduct a vast array of outcome studies designed to investigate the association of a wide variety of health factors with mortality.

numbers of deaths, leading cause of deaths, mortality, rate

Year-to-year death data for a given state can sometimes be affected by unexpectedly large numbers of death certificates with the underlying cause coded as “other ill-defined and unspecified causes of mortality” (ICD-10 code R99). Large year-to-year variations in state-specific injury-related death counts and/or rates for any reporting category defined by external-cause-of-injury or diagnosis codes can be evaluated in the context of accompanying year-to-year variations in the counts of death records with R99 as the underlying cause code (this information can be obtained using CDC WONDER: http://wonder.cdc.gov).

The National Death Index (NDI) is a centralized database of death record information on file in state vital statistics offices. Working with these state offices, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) established the NDI as a resource to aid epidemiologists and other health and medical investigators with their mortality ascertainment activities.

WONDER online databases utilize a rich ad-hoc query system for the analysis of public health data. Reports and other query systems are also available.

The FastStats site provides quick access to statistics on topics of public health importance and is organized alphabetically. Links are provided to publications that include the statistics presented, to sources of more data, and to related web pages.

The National Death Index (NDI) is a centralized database of death record information on file in state vital statistics offices. Working with these state offices, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) established the NDI as a resource to aid epidemiologists and other health and medical investigators with their mortality ascertainment activities.

The National Vital Statistics System is the oldest and most successful example of inter-governmental data sharing in Public Health and the shared relationships, standards, and procedures form the mechanism by which NCHS collects and disseminates the Nation’s official vital statistics. These data are provided through contracts between NCHS and vital registration systems operated in the various jurisdictions legally responsible for the registration of vital events – births, deaths, marriages, divorces, and fetal deaths.