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A Canadian peer-reviewed journal of population health and health services research

October 2014

Two approaches to linking census and hospital data

by Michelle Rotermann, Claudia Sanmartin, Gisèle Carrière, Richard Trudeau, Hélène St-Jean, Abdelnasser Saïdi, Alexander Reicker, Aimé Ntwari and Eric Hortop

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.


Use of acute care hospital services by immigrant seniors in Ontario: A linkage study

by Edward Ng, Claudia Sanmartin, Jack Tu and Doug Manuel

The percentage of people aged 65 or older in the Canadian population rose from 8% in 1960 to 15% in 2011; by 2036, the figure is expected to be at least 23%. Population aging affects the demand for and cost of health care services, given that seniors account for about 45% of provincial/territorial government health care dollars.6 Hospitals represented an estimated 29% of health care expenditures in 2012. Seniors are not only the largest user group, but per capita spending on hospital visits are consistently higher among seniors.

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