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What is Data Linkage? Those
who participate in case management or case fatality reviews are familiar
with the basic concept of data linkage: putting together information from
a variety of sources in order to arrive at a more complete picture of what
happened. The difference is,
rather than looking at individuals, we are looking at aggregate groups of
people. By looking at
aggregate data we see patterns regarding the nature and scope of IPV that
complements what can be seen through the cumulative experience of case
review. In addition, statistical techniques applied to linked data sets may
be used to estimate how many cases of IPV may exist that never come to the
attention of social services, health professionals or law enforcement
agencies. By using existing data sets and linking data sets, we can quantify
problems with data quality, and pinpoint where changes need to be made.
This in turn provides evidence to policymakers when requesting
resources to improve in data quality.
Uses of IPV Surveillance Data: v
Seek improvements in data quality v
Provide data to support applications for State and Federal grants v
Develop targeted prevention programs v
Impact injury-prevention legislation v
Evaluate interventions, and v
Aid better delivery of services to people who have experienced or
are currently experiencing IPV. Data Linkage
Methodology: When received by the
IPVS project, the data sets are cleaned, standardized, and submitted to a
probabilistic computer linking procedure (AUTOMATCH). AUTOMATCH software links records with matching variables into one
data set and, identifies duplicate cases among the data sets.
Personal identifiers such as name, social security number, and
address are not needed. Variables such as gender, date of birth, county of
residence, county and time of incident, are used for matching.
In the case of the hospital discharge data, these have to be
reviewed manually to identify victims of intimate partner violence (IPV)
so that a fuller data set for all IPV cases that can be linked to medical
records. This is done in
cooperation with Kentucky hospitals. |
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