The Israel Longitudinal Mortality Study--differential mortality in Israel 1983-1992: objectives, materials, methods and preliminary results.

The main objective of this study was to investigate mortality differentials in the Israeli population, aged 40 years and above, with regard to major demographic and socio-economic characteristics, in the nine-and-a-half years following the census of 1983. The method of data collection consisted of a linkage of records from the 20% sample of the census with the records of deaths occurring until the end of 1992. The linked file contains the socio-economic and demographic data from the census, and dates and causes of death taken from the death records. This paper focuses on a systematic evaluation of the quality of the linked file, and includes a description of the characteristics of the file. Methods of verification are presented and sources of possible errors are discussed. Results of bivariate analyses of mortality differentials in relation to marital status, ethnic origin, level of education, employment, occupation and income are presented.