Hi IPUMS, I believe the public-use linked mortality files for the 1986-2018 NHIS with mortality follow-up through December 31, 2019 were just released by NCHS. Do you know when you expect such data will be available through the IPUMS website? Thanks!
We are very excited about these files, but don’t currently have a firm release timeline for them given a number of other data project priorities. I will also note that the linking algorithm changed slightly; while this doesn’t affect most linkages, the team would like to assess the extent to which this change might affect mortality data already available based on the previous release of the NHIS-NDI LMF. Accordingly, I would not expect these to be available until sometime this fall at the earliest.
Hi Kari, thank you very much for your response. I understand IPUMS always has a lot on their plate. I’m wondering about following the linking guidelines myself (IPUMS NHIS) to link 2015-onward NHIS IPUMS surveys to the original NHIS data for the missing mortality variables. I’m comfortable with how to do that technically, but don’t want to go against IPUMS guidelines about concerns with data quality.
Does IPUMS not recommend doing this for preliminary results, while we wait for IPUMS to release the linkages themselves?
You are certainly welcome to link the original NCHS-released files to your IPUMS extract directly. The page you included is for linking annual release files from NCHS to the IPUMS version. For the NHIS-LMF data, please review this NCHS documentation on linking methods and analytic considerations. The IPUMS/NCHS variable name concordance tool may be helpful for identifying the relevant IPUMS variables for linking (for example, the IPUMS NHIS variable PROCYEAR corresponds to YEAR in the original NCHS data files for 1986-1996 and SRVY_YEAR in the original NCHS data files for 1997-2018).
I will also note that the linked mortality files have moved up on the priority list and could be available as early as late August.