NHANES III Public-use Linked Mortality Files

The NHANES III public use-related mortality file as of December 31, 2019, linked to the U.S. National Death Index (NDI) by National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) via a probabilistic matching algorithm. The files include a limited set of mortality variables for adult participants only. The public-use versions of the NCHS Linked Mortality Files were subjected to data perturbation techniques to reduce the risk of participant re-identification. For select records, synthetic data were substituted for follow-up time or underlying cause of death. Information regarding vital status was not perturbed.