The feasibility of combining data from routine Hospital Discharge and Causes-of-Death Registers for epidemiological studies on stroke.
We assessed the validity of hospital discharge data on stroke in Finland and the feasibility of linked hospital discharge and causes-of-death data for epidemiological studies using the FINMONICA Stroke Register as the reference. The results showed that such data can, with some caution, be used for incidence studies and for identifying first stroke events. They cannot, however, be used for assessing secular trends in all stroke events.
Mähönen
M
M
Department of Epidemiology and Health Promotion, KTL-National Public Health Institute, Helsinki, Finland. markku.mahonen@ktl.fi
Salomaa
V
V
Keskimäki
I
I
Moltchanov
V
V
Torppa
J
J
Molarius
A
A
Tuomilehto
J
J
Sarti
C
C
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002423:Cause of Death; D003644:Death Certificates; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008498:Medical Record Linkage; D008875:Middle Aged; D010351:Patient Discharge / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011159:Population Surveillance; D012042:Registries / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D020521:Stroke / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality