title: The effect of data cleaning on record linkage quality.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Within the field of record linkage, numerous data cleaning and standardisation techniques are employed to ensure the highest quality of links. While these facilities are common in record linkage software packages and are regularly deployed across record linkage units, little work has been published demonstrating the impact of data cleaning on linkage quality.
  
  
  METHODS
  A range of cleaning techniques was applied to both a synthetically generated dataset and a large administrative dataset previously linked to a high standard. The effect of these changes on linkage quality was investigated using pairwise F-measure to determine quality.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Data cleaning made little difference to the overall linkage quality, with heavy cleaning leading to a decrease in quality. Further examination showed that decreases in linkage quality were due to cleaning techniques typically reducing the variability - although correct records were now more likely to match, incorrect records were also more likely to match, and these incorrect matches outweighed the correct matches, reducing quality overall.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Data cleaning techniques have minimal effect on linkage quality. Care should be taken during the data cleaning process.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Data Linkage, Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute, Curtin University, Perth, WA GPO U1987, Australia. sean.randall@curtin.edu.au
authors.forename: Sean M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Randall
authors.forename: Anna M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Ferrante
authors.forename: James H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Boyd
authors.forename: James B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Semmens
mesh_terms: D001330:Electronic Data Processing / Q000379:methods*; D008498:Medical Record Linkage / Q000592:standards*; D015588:Observer Variation; D011786:Quality Control