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Methods Inf Med 1991; 30(02): 117-123
DOI: 10.1055/s-0038-1634828
Medical Records
Schattauer GmbH

Record Linkage Strategies

Part I: Estimating Information and Evaluating Approaches
L. L. Roos
1   Manitoba Centre for Health Policy and Evaluation and Faculty of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Canada
,
A. Wajda
1   Manitoba Centre for Health Policy and Evaluation and Faculty of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Canada
› Author AffiliationsThe authors gratefully acknowledge the help of the Manitoba Health Services Commission. This research was supported by National Health Research and Development Project No. 6607-1197-44, by Career Scientist Award No. 6607-1314-48, and by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. Interpretations and viewpoints contained in this paper are the authors’ own and do not necessarily epresent the opinion of the Manitoba ealth Services Commission, the Government of Manitoba, or Health and Welfare Canada. The authors also wish to thank Ruth Brazauskas, Kerry Meagher and Phyllis Jivan for help with the preparation of this manuscript.
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Publication History

Publication Date:
07 February 2018 (online)

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Abstract

Record linkage techniques can help identify the same patient for matching diverse files (hospital discharge abstracts, insurance claims, registries, Vital Statistics data) which contain similar identifiers. Prior knowledge of whether a linkage is feasible is important to prevent wasted effort (additional data collection or data manipulation), which decreases the cost-effectiveness of the linkage. Using examples generated by linking the Manitoba Health Services Commission data with Vital Statistics files, a method of estimating the information in each data set is presented first. Further, the feasibility of several different record linkage strategies is described and tested, given varying amounts of information. At the margin, relatively small amounts of information (having just one more variable to match with) can make a great difference. Probabilistic linkage’s great advantage was found in those situations where only a moderate amount of extra information was available.

By using the above techniques when working with one or both files in a proposed record linkage project, a much more informed judgement can now be made as to whether a linkage will or will not work. In facilitating record linkage, flexibility of both software and the strategy for matching is very important.

Key-Words

Record Linkage - Probabilistic Linkage - Deterministic Linkage - Administrative Data - Information Theory