Linking databases on perinatal health: a review of the literature and current practices in Europe

Abstract

à The members of the Euro-Peristat Scientific Committee are listed in the Acknowledgements.

Epidemiological investigation of perinatal deaths in Recife-Pernambuco: a quality assessment

“…Variables related to family characteristics were classified as "good." The evaluation of the socioeconomic context in which death occurred contributes to the planning and implementation of intersectoral actions (10,25) .…”

A step‐wise approach to developing indicators to compare the performance of maternity units using hospital administrative data

“…However, until centrally available electronic maternity records become the norm, routine hospital administrative data, linked with other sources of clinical and user experience data where possible, will be the key data source for performance indicators. Some countries, such as Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, are ahead of the game in integrating data linkage into their routine perinatal health surveillance systems and making these data available for research, but this is not a universal practice even in high‐income countries with access to electronic hospital administrative data . Standardisation of performance measures derived from administrative data research would be desirable to facilitate comparisons both nationally and internationally.…”

“…Similar initiatives based on routine data linkage exist in Australia . A recent systematic review found that broader adoption of routine data linkage of perinatal health databases could yield substantial gains for research and surveillance . It therefore seems likely that, despite the inherent challenges of using these data, there will be a reliance on maternity indicators based, at least in part, on administrative data for some time to come.…”

Creating the first national linked dataset on perinatal and maternal outcomes in Australia: Methods and challenges

“…However, its limitations include the time, technical intricacy and clerical burden involved, as well as concerns over the accuracy, consistency and comparability of data collected primarily for administrative purposes [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. Increasing numbers of studies of maternal or perinatal health and wellbeing have utilised data linkage, in Australia [32][33][34][35] and elsewhere, particularly in Britain, the United States, and the Nordic countries [36].…”