I was working on some projects where data pertaining to mortality/death of the patients was required and was recommended to go through the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) by a friend; information for which is then available through various websites (e.g. genealogy bank).
How reliable is this and any other recommendations for mortality data within United States?
There are several reports that estimate the inaccuracy of the SSDI, including recent audits of the SSDI by the Office of Inspector General. Generally there are two different ways to look at this: 1) what percentage of deceased persons are included in the database, and 2) what percentage of the database includes errors. On the first point, this index is a master index file of deaths reported to the Social Security Administration. It has been kept since 1962, when operations were computerized. The index includes about 50 percent of deceased persons from 1962 to 1971 and about 85 percent of the deceased persons from 1972 to 2005. It also includes a few deaths from 1937 to 1961 with a much smaller percentage reported. So, depending on the date range used this database may not be the best tool. One the second point, for the data included there are many estimates of the error rate from 0.5% to 3%, due to many possible sources for the errors including data entry problems to data reporting errors. If you can confine your research to a given region or state, then a better source is the State Registrar which have the responsibility to gather, analyze, and report on deaths in their state. See:
http://www.genre.com/sharedfile/pdf/BulletinLH201210-en.pdf
http://money.cnn.com/2011/08/17/pf/social_security_deaths_mistakes/index.htm
You can also access the SSDI without charge via www.familysearch.org. See also their wiki on the subject:
https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Social_Security_Death_Index_(SSDI)
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