Creating a population-based cohort of children born with and without congenital anomalies using birth data matched to hospital discharge databases in 11 European regions: Assessment of linkage success and data quality

作者：Maria Loane, Joanne Given, Joachim Tan, Ingeborg Barišić, Laia Barrachina‐Bonet, Clara Cavero‐Carbonell, Alessio Coi, James Densem, Ester Garne, Mika Gissler, Anna Heino, Sue Jordan, Renée Lutke, Amanda J. Neville, Ljubica Odak, Aurora Puccini, Michele Santoro, Ieuan Scanlon, Stine Kjær Urhøj, Hermien E. K. de Walle, Diana Wellesley, Joan K. Morris · 发表于：PLoS ONE · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.1371/journal.pone.0290711 · 被引用次数：9 · 研究领域：Food Security and Health in Diverse Populations、Child and Adolescent Health、Child Nutrition and Water Access

Linking routinely collected healthcare administrative data is a valuable method for conducting research on morbidity outcomes, but linkage quality and accuracy needs to be assessed for bias as the data were not collected for research. The aim of this study was to describe the rates of linking data on children with and without congenital anomalies to regional or national hospital discharge databases and to evaluate the quality of the matched data. Eleven population-based EUROCAT registries participated in a EUROlinkCAT study linking data on children with a congenital anomaly and children without congenital anomalies (reference children) born between 1995 and 2014 to administrative databases including hospital discharge records. Odds ratios (OR), adjusted by region, were estimated to assess the association of maternal and child characteristics on the likelihood of being matched. Data on 102,654 children with congenital anomalies were extracted from 11 EUROCAT registries and 2,199,379 reference children from birth registers in seven regions. Overall, 97% of children with congenital anomalies and 95% of reference children were successfully matched to administrative databases. Information on maternal age, multiple birth status, sex, gestational age and birthweight were >95% complete in the linked datasets for most regions. Compared with children born at term, those born at ≤27 weeks and 28-31 weeks were less likely to be matched (adjusted OR 0.23, 95% CI 0.21-0.25 and adjusted OR ...