Causes of death among Federal Black Lung Benefits Program beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare, 1999–2016

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Am J Ind Med
• Personal Author:
  Kurth, Laura ; Halldin, Cara ; Laney, A. Scott ; Blackley, David J.
• Description:
  Background:
  
  Coal miners with totally disabling pneumoconiosis are eligible for benefits through the Federal Black Lung Benefits Program (FBLP). We identify the causes of death among Medicare beneficiaries with a claim for which the FBLP was the primary payer and compare these causes of death to all deceased Medicare beneficiaries to better understand elevated death and disease among miners with occupational respiratory exposures.
  
  Methods:
  
  From 1999 to 2016 Medicare data, we extracted beneficiary and National Death Index data for 28,003 beneficiaries with an FBLP primary payer claim. We summarized the International Classification of Diseases, Clinical Modification 10th revision-coded underlying causes of death and entity-axis multiple causes of death for 22,242 deceased Medicare beneficiaries with an FBLP primary payer Medicare claim and compared their causes of death to the deceased Medicare beneficiary population.
  
  Results:
  
  Among deceased FBLP beneficiaries, the three leading underlying causes of death were chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, unspecified (J44.9, 10.1%), atherosclerotic heart disease (I25.1, 9.3%), and coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP) (J60, 9.2%). All diseases of the respiratory system combined (J00–J99) were the underlying cause of death for 29.1% of all beneficiaries, with pneumoconioses (J60–J64) as the underlying cause for 11.0% of all beneficiaries.
  
  Conclusions:
  
  Coal miners enrolled in Medicare with an FBLP primary payer claim were more likely to have specific respiratory and cardiovascular diseases listed as a cause of death than deceased Medicare beneficiaries overall, and were also more likely to die from CWP or any pneumoconioses.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Aged Aged, 80 And Over Anthracosis Cardiovascular Diseases Cause Of Death Coal Mining Coronary Artery Disease Female Humans Lung Diseases Male Medicare Occupational Diseases Occupational Exposure Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive

  More +
• Source:
  Am J Ind Med. 63(11):973-979
• Pubmed ID:
  32914887
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC8008697
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  CC999999/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/ ; National Occupational Research Agenda, NIOSH, CDCInternational/
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• Volume:
  63
• Issue:
  11
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:75bb3dd21a75dcb5c4dfdd73ced5232ccfc8a05d4d15648c3f389f7e55bd67f2
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/105637/cdc_105637_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 364.10 KB ]