Accuracy of the Australian National Death Index: Comparison with adjudicated fatal outcomes among Australian participants in the Long-term Intervention with Pravastatin in Ischaemic Disease (LIPID) study

Abstract

Objective: To assess the accuracy of the Australian National Death Index (NDI) in identifying deaths and recording cardiovascular and cancer causes of death. Methods: Adjudicated mortality data from Australian participants in the Long-term Intervention with Pravastatin in Ischaemic Disease (LIPID) study up until September 1999 were used as reference. Nine hundred and eighty deceased subjects and 4,841 surviving subjects were matched to the NDI by name, date of birth, date of death and postcode. Matching rigour was confirmed by manual review. Deaths ascribed to cardiovascular and cancer causes within the NDI were also compared against LIPID-adjudicated causes. flesu/te:Tne NDI displayed 93.7%..