International Epidemiology Institute, Rockville, MD, USA.
EpidStat Institute, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Int J Radiat Biol. 2022;98(4):580-586. doi: 10.1080/09553002.2018.1539884. Epub 2019 Jan 4.
To present the methodology used to determine vital status and obtain cause of death (COD) within the Million Person Study of Low-Dose Health Effects (MPS). Data sources and vital status tracing techniques used to obtain vital status and COD for six (n = 424,238 subjects) of the ∼20+ cohorts under study are described.
A multistage approach using multiple sources of vital status information was used to determine vital status (or 'trace') study participants from as early as 1940 to the present. Mortality records from state departments of vital statistics and the Social Security Administration Death Master File (SSA-DMF) were matched to study participants by Social Security Number (SSN), full name, date of birth (DOB), and/or sex using deterministic and probabilistic algorithms. The National Death Index (NDI) and SSA Service for Epidemiological Researchers (SSA-SER) were used to obtain COD (after 1978) and verification of alive status, respectively. Online public records and ancestry services, death certificates, and specialized mortality sources were also utilized.
For the MPS cohorts traced to date (nuclear power plant workers, industrial radiographers, atomic veterans, and workers at Rocketdyne/Atomics International, Mound nuclear facility, and Mallinckrodt Chemical Works), vital status was confirmed for over 90% of all study subjects in all but one cohort (88%). The ascertainment of COD was over 96% for all cohorts.
A hallmark of a high-quality epidemiologic cohort mortality study is a low percentage of subjects with unknown vital status and a low percentage of deaths without a COD. The sources and methods used for vital status tracing and COD determination for the MPS have been successful and should be useful for other investigators tracing large, historic study populations. Some of the approaches would be applicable for use in all cohort studies using regional-specific mortality data or modifications to the approach.
介绍在低剂量健康效应万人研究（MPS）中确定存活状态和获取死因（COD）所使用的方法。本文描述了用于确定正在研究的约 20 多个队列中的六个队列（n=424238 名受试者）的存活状态和 COD 所使用的数据来源和生存状态追踪技术。
使用多种来源的生存状态信息，采用多阶段方法，从 1940 年至今追踪研究参与者的生存状态。使用确定性和概率算法，通过社会安全号码（SSN）、全名、出生日期（DOB）和/或性别，将州立人口统计部门和社会保障管理局死亡主文件（SSA-DMF）中的死亡率记录与研究参与者进行匹配。国家死亡索引（NDI）和社会保障管理局流行病学研究服务（SSA-SER）分别用于获取 1978 年后的 COD 和生存状态验证。还利用了在线公共记录和祖先服务、死亡证明和专门的死亡率来源。
对于截至目前已追踪的 MPS 队列（核电站工作人员、工业放射技师、原子老兵、Rocketdyne/Atomics International、Mound 核设施和 Mallinckrodt 化学工厂的工人），除了一个队列（88%）之外，所有队列的研究参与者中，超过 90%的人的生存状态得到了确认。所有队列的 COD 确定率均超过 96%。
高质量的流行病学队列死亡率研究的一个特点是，具有未知生存状态的受试者比例和无 COD 的死亡比例都较低。MPS 中用于生存状态追踪和 COD 确定的来源和方法是成功的，对于其他追踪大型历史研究人群的研究人员应该是有用的。其中一些方法可适用于使用特定区域死亡率数据或对方法进行修改的所有队列研究。
