DOI: 10.3886/icpsr02631.v1
title: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey II: Mortality Study, 1992
title: Version 1

description: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey II:
 Mortality Study, 1992 (NH2MS) followed a subset of the participants in
 the second National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES
 II). The NH2MS cohort is comprised of adult respondents to the NHANES
 II who were 30-75 years of age at the time of the NHANES II, and who
 were interviewed and examined for NHANES II. Some participants who
 were 74 years of age during their interview turned 75 years old
 between their interview and the examination. The NHANES series of data
 collections included standardized physical examinations, laboratory
 tests, and interviews that covered various health-related topics. The
 NH2MS was designed to investigate the association between factors
 measured at baseline and overall mortality or death from specific
 causes. The NH2MS involved searching national databases containing
 information about mortality and causes of death. The study was
 entirely passive: participants were not recontacted, nor were all
 death certificates obtained. Instead, mortality status was ascertained
 solely by computerized matching to national databases and evaluation
 of the resulting matches. Furthermore, no recontact is planned in the
 future. Rather, matching to the National Death Index (NDI) and to
 other national databases will continue on a periodic basis. The
 Mortality Status file (Part 1) contains mortality status and
 demographic data for all NH2MS participants who were 30-75 years of
 age at their NHANES II examination. The Cause of Death file (Part 2)
 contains one record for each known decedent for whom multiple causes
 of death were obtained (2,103 out of the 2,145 participants identified
 as deceased). Cause of death is missing for some decedents either
 because there was no matching record on the NCHS Multiple Cause of
 Death files or the death certificate was not found through the state
vital statistics office.
description: Participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination
 Survey II who were 30-75 years of age and who were examined as part of
the NHANES II.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Mortality Status Data
DS2: Cause of Death Data
description: The civilian, noninstitutionalized population of the United
States aged 6-74.
description: (1) The NH2MS mortality data can be linked with the
 earlier baseline NHANES II data to examine the relationship between
 various factors and specific cause of death. One important
 ramification of the NH2MS design is that persons not found to be
 deceased are assumed to be alive for analytic purposes. As a result,
 there is a potential for misclassification of vital
 status. Researchers using the NH2MS data should be aware of this study
 limitation. (2) During this first wave of the study, mortality status
 was ascertained for the years 1976-1992. Two participants were unable
 to be followed because of incomplete personal identifying data and
 are considered lost to follow-up. The 9,250 cohort members were traced
 in the NH2MS by searching national databases containing mortality and
 cause-of-death information. The length of follow-up period ranges from
 12-16 years. Approximately 23 percent (n = 2,145) of the NH2MS cohort
 were found to be deceased as of December 31, 1992. (3) Per agreement
 with NCHS, ICPSR distributes the data files and text of the technical
documentation for this collection as prepared by NCHS.