Readme file: “Life Expectancy Loss among Native Americans During the COVID-19 Pandemic”
Authors: Noreen Goldman and Theresa Andrasfay

Data Access: 
All data used in this study are publicly accessible through CDC WONDER (Wide-ranging ONline Data for Epidemiological Research) through queries to the Provisional Multiple Cause of Death database: https://wonder.cdc.gov/mcd-icd10-provisional.html

Citation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. National Vital Statistics System, Provisional Mortality on CDC WONDER Online Database. Data are from the final Multiple Cause of Death Files, 2018-2020, and from provisional data for years 2021-2022, as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program. Accessed at http://wonder.cdc.gov/mcd-icd10-provisional.html on May 23, 2022 8:18:37

We made four queries with the following conditions:
1) Five-year age groups by sex
 "Dataset: Provisional Mortality Statistics, 2018 through Last Month"
 "Query Parameters:"
 "Title: AIAN_allcause_fiveyear_sex"
 "Hispanic Origin: Not Hispanic or Latino"
 "Single Race 6: American Indian or Alaska Native"
 "Year/Month: 2019; 2020; 2021 (provisional)"
 "Group By: Five-Year Age Groups; Year; Gender"
 "Show Totals: Disabled"
 "Show Zero Values: False"
 "Show Suppressed: True"
 "Calculate Rates Per: 100,000"
 "Rate Options: Default intercensal populations for years 2001-2009 (except Infant Age Groups)"

2) Five-year age groups both sexes combined
 "Dataset: Provisional Mortality Statistics, 2018 through Last Month"
 "Query Parameters:"
 "Title: AIAN_allcause_fiveyear_total"
 "Hispanic Origin: Not Hispanic or Latino"
 "Single Race 6: American Indian or Alaska Native"
 "Year/Month: 2019; 2020; 2021 (provisional)"
 "Group By: Five-Year Age Groups; Year"
 "Show Totals: False"
 "Show Zero Values: False"
 "Show Suppressed: True"
 "Calculate Rates Per: 100,000"
 "Rate Options: Default intercensal populations for years 2001-2009 (except Infant Age Groups)"

3) Over age 85 by sex
 "Dataset: Provisional Mortality Statistics, 2018 through Last Month"
 "Query Parameters:"
 "Title: AIAN_allcause_85_sex"
 "Hispanic Origin: Not Hispanic or Latino"
 "Single Race 6: American Indian or Alaska Native"
 "Ten-Year Age Groups: 85+ years"
 "Year/Month: 2019; 2020; 2021 (provisional)"
 "Group By: Year; Gender"
 "Show Totals: False"
 "Show Zero Values: False"
 "Show Suppressed: False"
 "Calculate Rates Per: 100,000"
 "Rate Options: Default intercensal populations for years 2001-2009 (except Infant Age Groups)"

4) Over age 85 both sexes combined
 "Dataset: Provisional Mortality Statistics, 2018 through Last Month"
 "Query Parameters:"
 "Title: AIAN_allcause_85_total"
 "Hispanic Origin: Not Hispanic or Latino"
 "Single Race 6: American Indian or Alaska Native"
 "Ten-Year Age Groups: 85+ years"
 "Year/Month: 2019; 2020; 2021 (provisional)"
 "Group By: Year"
 "Show Totals: False"
 "Show Zero Values: False"
 "Show Suppressed: False"
 "Calculate Rates Per: 100,000"
 "Rate Options: Default intercensal populations for years 2001-2009 (except Infant Age Groups)"

Each of these queries should be exported and saved as a .txt file using the query title as the file name.

Variables used in the analysis:
Year: Calendar year in which deaths occurred
Year Code: Calendar year in which deaths occurred
Five-Year Age Groups: Text description of five-year age interval in which deaths occurred
Five-Year Age Groups Code: Numeric range of five-year age interval in which deaths occurred
Gender: Text description of gender 
Gender Code: Code of gender, either "M" or "F"
Deaths: Number of deaths from all causes occurring in the five-year age interval
Population: Mid-year population in the five-year age interval. The population figures for years 2021 and 2020 are single-race estimates of the July 1 resident population, from the Vintage 2020 postcensal series released by the Census Bureau on July 27, 2021. The population figures for year 2019 are single-race estimates of the July 1 resident population, from the Vintage 2019 postcensal series released by the Census Bureau on June 25, 2020.


Replication Files

1) read_CDC_wonder.R 
   This file reads in the txt files obtained from CDC WONDER containing the AI/AN mortality data for 2019-2021
   Details on the CDC WONDER queries are provided in this file for those wishing to download the data themselves. 

2) life_table_construction.R
   This file takes the output of file (1) and creates lifetables for 2019-2021 for the AI/AN population.

3) manuscript_graphics.R
   This file takes the output of file (2) and creates manuscript graphics. 

All analyses were done using R version 4.0.