Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Mar 3;7(1):1689.
doi: 10.23889/ijpds.v6i1.1689. eCollection 2022.

Describing the linkage between administrative social assistance and health care databases in Ontario, Canada

Claire de Oliveira  1   2   3   4 , Evgenia Gatov  1 , Laura Rosella  1   2   5   6   7 , Simon Chen  1 , Rachel Strauss  1 , Mahmoud Azimaee  1 , Elizabeth Paterno  8 , Astrid Guttmann  1   2   9   10   11 ; Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services-ICES Working Group (Nelson Chong, Peter Lonescu, Sean Ji, Alexander Kopp, Annie Lan, Charlotte Ma, Miranda Pring, Priyanka Raj, Steven Ryan, Refik Saskin, Fiona Wong)
Affiliations

Describing the linkage between administrative social assistance and health care databases in Ontario, Canada

Claire de Oliveira et al. Int J Popul Data Sci. .

Abstract

Background: The linkage of records across administrative databases has become a powerful tool to increase information available to undertake research and analytics in a privacy protective manner.

Objective: The objective of this paper was to describe the data integration strategy used to link the Ontario Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services (MCCSS)-Social Assistance (SA) database with administrative health care data.

Methods: Deterministic and probabilistic linkage methods were used to link the MCCSS-SA database (2003-2016) to the Registered Persons Database, a population registry containing data on all individuals issued a health card number in Ontario, Canada. Linkage rates were estimated, and the degree of record linkage and representativeness of the dataset were evaluated by comparing socio-demographic characteristics of linked and unlinked records.

Results: There were a total of 2,736,353 unique member IDs in the MCCSS-SA database from the 1st January 2003 to 31st December 2016; 331,238 (12.1%) were unlinked (linkage rate = 87.9%). Despite 16 passes, most record linkages were obtained after 2 deterministic (76.2%) and 14 probabilistic passes (11.7%). Linked and unlinked samples were similar for most socio-demographic characteristics (i.e., sex, age, rural dwelling), except migrant status (non-migrant versus migrant) (standardized difference of 0.52). Linked and unlinked records were also different for SA program-specific characteristics, such as social assistance program, Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Program (standardized difference of 0.20 for each), data entry system, Service Delivery Model Technology only and both Service Delivery Model Technology and Social Assistance Management System (standardized difference of 0.53 and 0.52, respectively), and months on social assistance (standardized difference of 0.43).

Conclusions: Additional techniques to account for sub-optimal linkage rates may be required to address potential biases resulting from this data linkage. Nonetheless, the linkage between administrative social assistance and health care data will provide important findings on the social determinants of health.

Keywords: Ontario; administrative health care data; administrative social assistance data; data linkage.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest: None to be declared.

Figures

Figure 1: Pre-processing linkage steps for the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services – Social Assistance input file
Figure 1: Pre-processing linkage steps for the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services – Social Assistance input file
Figure 2: Linkage process for Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services – Social Assistance data
Figure 2: Linkage process for Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services – Social Assistance data
Figure 3: Deterministic linkage, probabilistic linkage and unlinked rates and percentage of unlinked records for the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services – Social Assistance by year (2003–2016)
Figure 3: Deterministic linkage, probabilistic linkage and unlinked rates and percentage of unlinked records for the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services – Social Assistance by year (2003–2016)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004, S.O. 2004, c. 3, Sched. A. Ontario. 2020. https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/04p03 (Accessed 29 April 2021).
    1. Toulany A, Stukel TA, Kurdyak P, Fu L, Guttmann A. Association of Primary Care Continuity With Outcomes Following Transition to Adult Care for Adolescents With Severe Mental Illness. JAMA Netw Open. 2019;2(8):e198415. 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.8415. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. de Oliveira C, Cheng J, Rehm J, Kurdyak P. The Economic Burden of Chronic Psychotic Disorders in Ontario. J Ment Health Policy Econ. 2016; 19(4):181–192. - PubMed
    1. O’Neill M, Buajitti E, Donnelly PD, Lewis J, Kornas K, Rosella LC. Characterising risk of homicide in a population-based cohort. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2019; 74(12):1028–1034. 10.1136/jech-2019-213249. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Manuel DG, Perez R, Sanmartin C, Taljaard M, Hennessy D, Wilson K, Tanuseputro P, Manson H, Bennett C, Tuna M, Fisher S, Rosella LC. Measuring Burden of Unhealthy Behaviours Using a Multivariable Predictive Approach: Life Expectancy Lost in Canada Attributable to Smoking, Alcohol, Physical Inactivity, and Diet. PLoS Med. 2016; 13(8):e1002082. 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002082. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources