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Feasibility study for identifying adverse events attributable to vaccination by record linkage

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2009

J. Q. Nash
Affiliation:
Public Health Laboratory, William Harvey Hospital, Kenningon Road, Ashford, Kent TN 24 0LZ
M. Chandrakumar
Affiliation:
Department of Public Health Medicine, East Kent Health Authority, 7–9 Cambridge Terrace, Dover, Kent CT16 1JT
C. P. Farrington
Affiliation:
Statistics Unit, Public Health Laboratory Service, 61 Colindale Avenue, London NW9 5EQ
S. Williamson
Affiliation:
Department of Child Health, William Harvey Hospital, Kenningon Road, Ashford, Kent TN24 0LZ
E. Miller
Affiliation:
Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, 61 Colindale Avenue, London NW9 5EQ
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Summary

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To investigate the feasibility of using a record linkage method for identifying vaccine attributable adverse events, computerized hospital admissions and vaccination records from South East Kent district were linked and checked for accuracy. Records for 90% of children under 2 years of age admitted to hospital over a 2-year period were matched with vaccination records using a computer algorithm based on name, date of birth, sex, and post-code supplemented by visual inspection. Relative to this gold standard, matching on date of birth, sex and postcode alone had a sensitivity of 60% and an incorrect match rate of 0·2% after matches to more than one vaccine recipient were excluded. Manual checking of a sample of admissions showed that only 4% had been assigned incorrect International Classification of Disease (ICD) codes. Routine record linkage of ICD admission codes to vaccination records therefore yields data of good quality which may be used for surveillance purposes.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

References

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