US Disability Mortality Trends Across Disability Status, Type, Sex, and Race-Ethnicity, 2017-2021 - This project will use the 2017-2021 Multiple Cause of Death Mortality Files from National Vital Statistics System to investigate the leading cause of death and age at death trends for those with physical disability, psychiatric disability, intellectual and developmental disability, sensory disability, and multiple disabilities. I will analyze all-cause mortality, specific-cause mortality, and age at death trends comparatively. For all-cause mortality analysis, I will compare crude death rates between those with and without disability and between decedents with specific types of disability the population without disability. For specific-cause mortality, I will use logistic regression analysis to determine standardized mortality odds ratios for the top ten causes of death, avoidable causes of death, accidental deaths, violent deaths, COVID-19 deaths, and maternal deaths to compare the likelihood of death from these causes by disability status, type, and prevalent diagnoses. For age at death trends, I will calculate the mean age at death and age at death distributions for disabled decedents compared to non-disabled decedents. All analyses will be stratified by age, sex, and race-ethnicity and will control for education level, marital status, and number of causes of death listed on the death certificate.
