Multiple Cause of Death Series

This dataset is a special subset of data from 1968-1978 and 1979-1980 prepared from the Mortality detail files (ICPSR 7632). These data were collected by the National Center for Health Statistics and are of considerable importance to those individuals interested in criminological research. The cause of death codes for the 1968-1978 data are derived from the International Classification of Diseases Adapted for Use in the United States (Eighth Revision) (ICDA-8). The cause of death codes for the 1979-1980 data are derived from the International Classification of Diseases (Ninth Revision) (ICD-9). Due to changes in cause of death definitions incorporated in the ninth revision, the 1968-1978 data and codebooks differ slightly from the 1979-1980 data files. For example, the 1979-1980 external cause definitions include new codes for handgun versus other gun accidents, handgun versus other gun suicides, handgun versus other gun homicides, and drug poison versus other poison homicides.

In addition to the differences in the cause of death codes and recodes, the 1979-1980 data include three variables not available in the 1968-1978 datasets. These are: (1) mortality by marital status, (2) state or country of birth, and (3) place of death and status of decedent when death occurred in a hospital or medical center. With these exceptions, the data are similar in structure and content to the 1968-1978 data providing such detailed personal and geographic information as month and day of death, deceased's race and gender, age of deceased at time of death, place of decedent's residence (specific to the city level) and place of death (specific to the county-level), and whether an autopsy was performed. For each data file for the years 1968 through 1978, there are 35 variables for approximately 82,846 to 166,997 records, each with a logical record length of 80 characters. For the years 1979 and 1980, there are 38 variables for 159,635 and 161,374 records, respectively. The 1979 and 1980 data have a logical record length of 86 characters.