MORTALITY DATA
Welcome to MIT's epidemiology database pages. The original design
for this database was the work Dr. Pablo Herrero-Jimenez now of
McKinsey Associates, Mexico City, Mexico. Dr. Herrero-Jimenez
uncovered and transcribed the relevant mortality data for the United
States and matched it with the appropriate Census numbers from the
year 1890-1992 for the United States. The complete description of
this extraordinary effort is recorded in his MIT Ph.D. thesis,
"Determination of the historical changes in primary and secondary
risk factors for cancer using U.S. public health records."(2001). His
immediate area of study was the US national cancer data but he
responded to broad interest in lung diseases and other forms of
mortality.
These U.S. mortality data are being updated by Mr. Efren Gutierrez,
Jr. through 1997 as the U.S. Public Health service and Census Bureau
make them available. We have been substantively assisted in
ascertaining age-specific population numbers since 1950 by the Duke
Center for Demographic Studies University directed by Prof. Kenneth
Manton.
These data dating from 1951-1994 were transcribed and ordered from
written public records supplied to us by Dr. Ryoji Sakai then of the
Department of Public Health, University of Tokyo. This work was
comprised in the M.S. thesis of Mr. Jose Angel Marquez , Jr., "A
comparative analysis of age-dependent and birth year cohort-specific
mortality data between Japan and the United States, 1999.
SEVERAL STATES OF THE UNITED STATES
MASSACHUSETTS
These data dating back to the late 1950s for the states of
Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, California, Texas
and Florida were compiled and organized by Dr. Janice A. Vatland as
part of her Ph.D. thesis, Analysis of community cancer mortality
rates, 2002. Only some summary data can be made available via this
website per agreements with state public health authorities. We are
interested in sharing these data with serious researchers by formal
extension of these agreements to them from the several states.
e-mail Bill Thilly at thilly@mit.edu or call (617) 253-6221
All of the files are Microsoft Excel files.
