Authors:
Colvin L; Slack-Smith L; Stanley FJ; Bower C
Authors notes:
BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2013;13:63
Keywords:
Data Linkage, Depression, Pregnancy, Health datasets
Abstract:
Although record linkage of routinely collected health datasets is a valuable research resource, most datasets are established for administrative purposes and not for health outcomes research.
It is the objective of this study to investigate the differences in ascertainment which may arise between a hospital admission dataset and a dispensing claims dataset, using major depression in pregnancy as an example.
From 2002 to 2005, there were 96698 births in WA.
At least one antidepressant was dispensed to 4485 (4.6%) pregnant women.
There were 3010 (3.1%) women with a comorbidity related to depression recorded on their delivery admission, or other admission to hospital during pregnancy.
There were a total of 7495 pregnancies identified by either set of records.
Using data linkage, we determined that these records represented 6596 individual pregnancies.
Only 899 pregnancies were found in both groups (13.6% of all cases). 80% of women dispensed an antidepressant did not have depression recorded as a comorbidity on their hospital records.
A simple capture-recapture calculation suggests the prevalence of depression in this population of pregnant women to be around 16%.
No single data source is likely to provide a complete health profile for an individual.
For women with depression in pregnancy and dispensed antidepressants, the hospital admission data do not adequately capture all cases.