ArticleBMC medical research methodology2006
How good is probabilistic record linkage to reconstruct reproductive histories? Results from the Aberdeen Children of the 1950s study.
Article in BMC medical research methodology, 2006. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed.
- Comparison of reproductive history gathered by interview and by vital records linkage after 40 years of follow-up: Bogalusa Babies.BMC medical research methodology · 2019Article
- Sociodemographic differences in linkage error: an examination of four large-scale datasets.BMC health services research · 2018Article
- Feasibility of Linking Long-Term Cardiovascular Cohort Data to Offspring Birth Records: The Bogalusa Heart Study.Maternal and child health journal · 2018Article
- The promise of record linkage for assessing the uptake of health services in resource constrained settings: a pilot study from South Africa.BMC medical research methodology · 2014Article
- Effectiveness of quadrivalent human papillomavirus vaccine for the prevention of cervical abnormalities: case-control study nested within a population based screening programme in Australia.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2014Article
- Preconception biomarkers of allostatic load and racial disparities in adverse birth outcomes: the Bogalusa Heart Study.Paediatric and perinatal epidemiology · 2013Article
- Family size and perinatal circumstances, as mental health risk factors in a Scottish birth cohort.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2012Article
- Fatherhood and incident prostate cancer in a prospective US cohort.International journal of epidemiology · 2011Article
- Data linkage: a powerful research tool with potential problems.BMC health services research · 2010Article
- U.S. Maternally linked birth records may be biased for Hispanics and other population groups.Annals of epidemiology · 2010Article
- Record linkage to obtain birth outcomes for the evaluation of screening biomarkers in pregnancy: a feasibility study.BMC medical research methodology · 2009Article
- Accuracy of public health data linkages.Maternal and child health journal · 2009Article
- Using discharge abstracts to evaluate a regional perinatal network: assessment of the linkage procedure of anonymous data.International journal of telemedicine and applications · 2009Article
- Linkage of health and aged care service events: comparing linkage and event selection methods.BMC health services research · 2008Article
- An empiric modification to the probabilistic record linkage algorithm using frequency-based weight scaling.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIAArticle
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundProbabilistic record linkage is widely used in epidemiology, but studies of its validity are rare. Our aim was to validate its use to identify births to a cohort of women, being drawn from a large cohort of people born in Scotland in the early 1950s.
methodsThe Children of the 1950s cohort includes 5868 females born in Aberdeen 1950-56 who were in primary schools in the city in 1962. In 2001 a postal questionnaire was sent to the cohort members resident in the UK requesting information on offspring. Probabilistic record linkage (based on surname, maiden name, initials, date of birth and postcode) was used to link the females in the cohort to birth records held by the Scottish Maternity Record System (SMR 2).
resultsWe attempted to mail a total of 5540 women; 3752 (68%) returned a completed questionnaire. Of these 86% reported having had at least one birth. Linkage to SMR 2 was attempted for 5634 women, one or more maternity records were found for 3743. There were 2604 women who reported at least one birth in the questionnaire and who were linked to one or more SMR 2 records. When judged against the questionnaire information, the linkage correctly identified 4930 births and missed 601 others. These mostly occurred outside of Scotland (147) or prior to full coverage by SMR 2 (454). There were 134 births incorrectly linked to SMR 2.
conclusionProbabilistic record linkage to routine maternity records applied to population-based cohort, using name, date of birth and place of residence, can have high specificity, and as such may be reliably used in epidemiological research.
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