Sex and Race Specific Mortality Differentials in Multiple Cause of Death Data

The black/white mortality crossover is studied by comparing its presence in underlying cause of death data, where one cause is assigned to each death, to its presence in data where deaths may have multiple causes. A number of observations are made which suggest that the basic biomedical aspects of aging and chronic disease are better represented in the multiple cause of death data. The constraint of assigning only one cause to a death distorts the picture of age variation in chronic disease mortality and limits the use of underlying cause of death data in the study of certain aspects of population aging processes.