title: A retrospective cohort study assessing patient characteristics and the incidence of cardiovascular disease using linked routine primary and secondary care data.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Data linkage combines information from several clinical data sets. The authors examined whether coding inconsistencies for cardiovascular disease between components of linked data sets result in differences in apparent population characteristics.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective cohort study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Routine primary care data from 40 Scottish general practitioner (GP) surgeries linked to national hospital records.
  
  
  METHODS
  240 846 patients, aged 20 years or older, registered at a GP surgery.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Cases of myocardial infarction, ischaemic heart disease and stroke (cerebrovascular disease) were identified from GP and hospital records. Patient characteristics and incidence rates were assessed for all three clinical outcomes, based on GP, hospital, paired GP/hospital (similar diagnoses recorded simultaneously in both data sets) or pooled GP/hospital records (diagnosis recorded in either or both data sets).
  
  
  RESULTS
  For all three outcomes, the authors found evidence (p<0.05) of different characteristics when using different methods of case identification. Prescribing of cardiovascular medicines for ischaemic heart disease was greatest for cases identified using paired records (p≤0.013). For all conditions, 30-day case fatality rates were higher for cases identified using hospital compared with GP or paired data, most noticeably for myocardial infarction (hospital 20%, GP 4%, p=0.001). Incidence rates were highest using pooled GP/hospital data and lowest using paired data.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Differences exist in patient characteristics and disease incidence for cardiovascular conditions, depending on the data source. This has implications for studies using routine clinical data.
authors.affiliation: General Practice and Primary Care Research Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Rupert A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Payne
authors.forename: Gary A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Abel
authors.forename: Colin R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Simpson