“…Linkage of data from early childhood (birth to 5 years) was completed in 2014 by an independent agency, the Centre for Health Record Linkage (
), using probabilistic linkage methods and with adherence to strict privacy protocols (researchers received de-identified records only). Matching variables included name, date of birth, residential address and sex (for detail on linkage methods and data collections, see Carr et al
2016). Ethical review was conducted by the NSW Population and Health Services Research Ethics Committee (HREC/11/CIPHS/14), with data custodian approvals granted by the relevant government departments.…”