Abstract
Background
Keywords
Findings
Authors
What is already known on this subject?
What does this study add?
Background
This study compares registry and non-registry approaches to linking 2006 Census of Population data for Manitoba and Ontario to hospital data from the Discharge Abstract Database (DAD).
Data and methods
Using a probabilistic linkage, the registry approach linked the census data to provincial health insurance registries, followed by a deterministic linkage to the DAD based on health insurance number (HIN). The non-registry approach used hierarchical deterministic exact matching based on three variables common to both files to link census data to the DAD. The approaches were compared in terms of linkage and coverage rates, sensitivity and specificity, and consistency of HINs on the linked records.
Results
Results of the registry and non-registry linkage approaches were similar. In Manitoba, 7% and 6% of census long-form respondents linked to the DAD with the registry and non-registry linkage approaches, respectively; in Ontario, the linkage rate was 5% for both approaches. With the registry approach, the linked census-DAD data represented 84% (weighted) of hospital admissions in the 2006/2007 DAD in both provinces, compared with 82% in Manitoba and Ontario with the non-registry approach.
Interpretation
In the absence of access to provincial health insurance registries with which census data can be linked, a non-registry approach can be used to create a research-quality dataset.
Keywords
Coverage, data collection, data linkage, databases, medical records, hospital records, meta-analysis
Findings
Record linkage, the process of matching records across or within datasets, is common in health research. The goal is to create an enriched dataset with wider applications. The data suited for linkage are those that are complementary—information unavailable in one source is available in the other. [Full Text]
Authors
Michelle Rotermann (michelle.rotermann@statcan.gc.ca), Claudia Sanmartin and Gisèle Carrière are with the Health Analysis Division, Richard Trudeau is with the Health Statistics Division, and Hélène St-Jean, Abdelnasser Saïdi, Alexander Reicker, Aimé Ntwari and Eric Hortop are with the Household Survey Methods Division at Statistics Canada, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0T6.
What is already known on this subject?
- Record linkage is a cost-effective way to add value to administrative and survey datasets.
- Combining complementary data sources permits analyses that would otherwise not be possible.
- The use of provincial health insurance registries to facilitate record linkages is well established.
- It is less clear if linkages based on birth date, sex and postal code can produce research-quality data.
What does this study adds?
- This study compares registry and non-registry approaches to linking census data to hospitalization records in the Discharge Abstract Database.
- The two approaches produced similar results.
- The results suggest that the non-registry approach is a viable alternative in the absence of access to provincial health insurance registry data.
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