Table 5

Agreement Rates of VA Mortality Data with NDI Dates by Source and Level of Precision*

Source
Number of Deaths
Death Dates in a Source that Agree with NDI Dates (%)





Exactly
Within 2 Days
In Year and Month

BIRLS-DF
229
222 (96.9)
224 (98.2)
225 (98.7)
MSID
35
35 (100.0)
35 (100.0)
35 (100.0)
MVS
246
235 (95.5)
239 (97.2)
244 (99.2)
SSA-DMF
272
260 (95.6)
265 (97.4)
270 (99.3)
Combined
292
285 (97.6)
288 (98.6)
291 (99.7)

* NDI indicates the National Death Index; BIRLS-DF, the Beneficiary Identification and Resource Locator Subsystem Death File; MSID, the VHA Medical SAS Inpatient Datasets; MVS, Medicare Vital Status; SSA-DMF, the Social Security Administration Death Master File.

Sohn et al. Population Health Metrics 2006 4:2   doi:10.1186/1478-7954-4-2