View in EDS

Probabilistically Linkage of California's Birth Certificate and Hospital Discharge Data.

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Title: Probabilistically Linkage of California's Birth Certificate and Hospital Discharge Data.
Authors: Garg B; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR., Caughey AB; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR., Darney BG; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR.; Oregon Health and Science University-Portland State University School of Public Health, Portland, OR.; Insituto Nacional de Salud Publica (INSP), Centro de Investigacion en Salud Poblacional (CISP), Cuernavaca, Mexico.
Source: Medical care [Med Care] 2025 Jun 01; Vol. 63 (6), pp. 458-463. Date of Electronic Publication: 2025 Mar 31.
Publication Type: Journal Article
Language: English
Journal Info: Publisher: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 0230027 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1537-1948 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 00257079 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Med Care Subsets: MEDLINE
Imprint Name(s): Publication: Hagerstown, MD : Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Original Publication: Philadelphia, etc., Lippincott.
MeSH Terms: Birth Certificates* , Patient Discharge*/statistics & numerical data , Medical Record Linkage*/methods, Humans ; California ; Female ; Infant, Newborn ; Male ; Infant ; Adult ; Pregnancy ; Databases, Factual
Abstract: Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Objective: To link California's birth certificate data with maternal and infant hospital discharge data to get a valuable database for epidemiological research.
Background: Secondary data sources are widely used for epidemiological research. Although California's birth certificate and patient discharge data (PDD) are readily available separately, the linked data are only available till 2012. We obtained birth certificate data from the California Department of Public Health and hospital discharge data from the Department of Health Care Access and Information. In this study, we propose a methodology to link these 2 datasets, which can be used for perinatal epidemiological research. We utilized data from 2008 to 2019.
Methods: We used probabilistic linkage methods to link birth certificates and hospital discharge data. Hospital discharge data was included as 2 datasets: maternal and infant discharge records. The linkage was a 2-step process: (1) Linkage of birth certificate with infant's hospital discharge data to form combined data. (2) Linkage of combined birth certificate-infant's discharge data with maternal discharge data.
Results: We included 5,661,695 births from birth certificates and 5,617,921 infant discharge files. After linkage, we were able to link 92.2% of the birth certificate records with the infant's discharge files using variables: maternity hospital, infant's birth date, infant's sex, mother's residence zip code, and birth Hospital County. When the combined vital statistics-infant's PDD data were linked with maternal PDD data, 90.0% of vital statistics data linked with both infant and maternal PDD, 2.5% linked to only infant PDD, and 1.5% linked to only maternal PDD.
Conclusion: Our linkage algorithm produces effective linked data that can be used for epidemiological research. This process is complex and needs to be evaluated every year as some of the variables change, or some added information becomes available in some files.
(Copyright © 2025 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)
References: Gemmill A, Passarella M, Phibbs CS, et al. Validity of birth certificate data compared with hospital discharge data in reporting maternal morbidity and disparities. Obstet Gynecol. 2024;143:459–462.
Haidari ES, Lee HC, Illuzzi JL, et al. Utility of birth certificate data for evaluating hospital variation in admissions to NICUs. Hospital Pediatrics. 2020;10:190–194.
Haghighat N, Hu M, Laurent O, et al. Comparison of birth certificates and hospital-based birth data on pregnancy complications in Los Angeles and Orange County, California. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2016;16:93.
Lydon-Rochelle MT, Holt VL, Cárdenas V, et al. The reporting of pre-existing maternal medical conditions and complications of pregnancy on birth certificates and in hospital discharge data. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2005;193:125–134.
Kim SY, Ahuja S, Stampfel C, et al. Are birth certificate and hospital discharge linkages performed in 52 jurisdictions in the United States? Matern Child Health J. 2015;19:2615–2620.
Goldberg MS, Carpenter M, Thériault G, et al. The accuracy of ascertaining vital status in a historical cohort study of synthetic textiles workers using computerized record linkage to the Canadian Mortality Data Base. Can J Public Health. 1993;84:201–204.
Herrchen B, Gould JB, Nesbitt TS. Vital statistics linked birth/infant death and hospital discharge record linkage for epidemiological studies. Comput Biomed Res. 1997;30:290–305.
Setoguchi S, Zhu Y, Jalbert JJ, et al. Validity of deterministic record linkage using multiple indirect personal identifiers. Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes. 2014;7:475–480.
Zhu Y, Matsuyama Y, Ohashi Y, et al. When to conduct probabilistic linkage vs. deterministic linkage? A simulation study. J Biomed Inform. 2015;56:80–86.
Vo K, Jonnagaddala J, Liaw S-T. Statistical supervised meta-ensemble algorithm for medical record linkage. J Biomed Inform. 2019;95:103220.
Sayers A, Ben-Shlomo Y, Blom AW, et al. Probabilistic record linkage. Int J Epidemiol. 2016;45:954–64.
Li B, Quan H, Fong A, et al. Assessing record linkage between health care and Vital Statistics databases using deterministic methods. BMC Health Serv Res. 2006;6:48.
CDPH. Vital Records Data and Statistics. 2024. https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CHSI/Pages/Data%20Types%20and%20Limitations.aspx.
CDPH. Vital Records Data Applications. 2024. https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CHSI/Pages/Data-Applications.aspx.
HCAI. Research Data Request Information. 2024. https://hcai.ca.gov/data-and-reports/research-data-request-information/.
Danielsen BH, Carmichael SL, Gould JB, et al. Linked birth cohort files for perinatal health research: California as a model for methodology and implementation. Ann Epidemiol. 2023;79:10–18.
HCAI. California Department of Health Access and Information. 2024. https://hcai.ca.gov/data-and-reports/research-data-request-information/.
CPHS. Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects. 2024. https://www.chhs.ca.gov/cphs/.
CMS. General Equivalence Mappings. 2024. https://www.cms.gov/medicare/coding/icd10/downloads/icd-10_gem_fact_sheet.pdf.
Kuklina EV, Whiteman MK, Hillis SD, et al. An enhanced method for identifying obstetric deliveries: implications for estimating maternal morbidity. Matern Child Health J. 2008;12:469–477.
AHRQ. Enhanced delivery hospitalization identification method: 2024. https://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/statbriefs/sb243-Severe-Maternal-Morbidity-Delivery-Trends-Disparities.jsp.
AHRQ. I10_DELIVERY - ICD-10-CM Delivery Indicator. 2024. https://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/db/vars/siddistnote.jsp?var=i10_delivery.
Blakely T, Salmond C. Probabilistic record linkage and a method to calculate the positive predictive value. Int J Epidemiol. 2002;31:1246–1252.
Blasnik M. RECLINK: Stata module to probabilistically match records," Statistical Software Components S456876, Boston College Department of Economics, revised 18 Jan 2010. 2007.
UCSF. Family Health Outcomes Project: 2024. https://fhop.ucsf.edu/data-management-methods.
Fellegi IP, Sunter AB. A theory for record linkage. J Am Stat Assoc. 1969;64:1183–1210.
Contributed Indexing: Keywords: California data; birth certificate; hospital discharge; linkage
Entry Date(s): Date Created: 20250331 Date Completed: 20250510 Latest Revision: 20250510
Update Code: 20250511
DOI: 10.1097/MLR.0000000000002139
PMID: 40163323
Database: MEDLINE
Description
Abstract:Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.<br />Objective: To link California's birth certificate data with maternal and infant hospital discharge data to get a valuable database for epidemiological research.<br />Background: Secondary data sources are widely used for epidemiological research. Although California's birth certificate and patient discharge data (PDD) are readily available separately, the linked data are only available till 2012. We obtained birth certificate data from the California Department of Public Health and hospital discharge data from the Department of Health Care Access and Information. In this study, we propose a methodology to link these 2 datasets, which can be used for perinatal epidemiological research. We utilized data from 2008 to 2019.<br />Methods: We used probabilistic linkage methods to link birth certificates and hospital discharge data. Hospital discharge data was included as 2 datasets: maternal and infant discharge records. The linkage was a 2-step process: (1) Linkage of birth certificate with infant's hospital discharge data to form combined data. (2) Linkage of combined birth certificate-infant's discharge data with maternal discharge data.<br />Results: We included 5,661,695 births from birth certificates and 5,617,921 infant discharge files. After linkage, we were able to link 92.2% of the birth certificate records with the infant's discharge files using variables: maternity hospital, infant's birth date, infant's sex, mother's residence zip code, and birth Hospital County. When the combined vital statistics-infant's PDD data were linked with maternal PDD data, 90.0% of vital statistics data linked with both infant and maternal PDD, 2.5% linked to only infant PDD, and 1.5% linked to only maternal PDD.<br />Conclusion: Our linkage algorithm produces effective linked data that can be used for epidemiological research. This process is complex and needs to be evaluated every year as some of the variables change, or some added information becomes available in some files.<br /> (Copyright © 2025 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)
ISSN:1537-1948
DOI:10.1097/MLR.0000000000002139