Effect of racial/ethnic misclassification of American Indians and Alaskan Natives on Washington State death certificates, 1989-1997.

Objectives: This study examined effects of racial/ethnic misclassification of American Indians and Alaskan Natives on Washington State death certificates.

Methods: Probabilistic record linkage were used to match the 1989-1997 state death files to the Northwest Tribal Registry.

Results: We identified matches for 2819 decedents, including 414 (14.