A Validation Method to Determine Missing Years of Birth in a Cohort Study of Shipyard Workers Using Social Security Number

Details

• Alternative Title:
  J Occup Environ Med
• Personal Author:
  Cabasag, Citadel J. ; Ziogas, Argyrios ; Shehata, Merna ; Anton-Culver, Hoda
• Description:
  The objective of the study is to evaluate the generalizability and feasibility of a prediction method developed by Block et al (1983) to estimate missing age of workers by using their Social Security Numbers (SSNs).|Our study used a retrospective occupational cohort of about 15,000 workers from the Long Beach Naval Shipyard (1978 to 1985).|Our results showed an 89.2% agreement (P < 0.0001) between the predicted and observed years of birth using Block's method. The correlation increased to 93.1% (P < 0.0001) after our modifications by removing workers with SSNs issued in U.S. territories. The method performed better in shipyard workers who obtained their SSNs after 1950.|Although the method is useful in imputing missing age, the accuracy is dependent on the year, age, and location of SSN issuance.
• Subjects:
  Age Distribution Epidemiologic Methods Humans Records Research Design Retrospective Studies Ships Social Security Vital Statistics
• Source:
  J Occup Environ Med. 58(6):631-635.
• Pubmed ID:
  27281641
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC4958378
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  F31 CA200344/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States ; T42 OH008412/OH/NIOSH CDC HHS/United States
• Volume:
  58
• Issue:
  6
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:a72e286e536a080e471ae48518251d4ee12328ef8064ac173860148c3cc7d2b0
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/40486/cdc_40486_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 265.86 KB ]