title: Using personal health insurance numbers to link the Canadian Cancer Registry and the Discharge Abstract Database.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Linking cancer registry and administrative data can reveal health care use patterns among cancer patients. The Canadian Cancer Registry (CCR) contains personal health insurance numbers (HINs) that facilitate linkage to hospitalization information in the Discharge Abstract Database (DAD).
  
  
  METHODS
  Valid HINs, captured in the CCR or obtained through probabilistic linkages to provincial health insurance registries, were used to deterministically link prostate, female breast, colorectal and lung cancers diagnosed from 2005 through 2008 with the DAD for fiscal years 2004/2005 to 2010/2011.
  
  
  RESULTS
  At least 98% of tumours diagnosed from 2005 through 2008 had valid HINs in the CCR or obtained through probabilistic linkages. For provinces submitting day surgeries to the DAD, linkage rates to at least one DAD record were higher for female breast (95.6% to 98.1%), colorectal (96.9% to 98.7%) and lung cancers (92.8% to 96.3%) than for prostate cancers (77.2% to 91.6%). Among linked records, agreement was high for sex (99% or more) and complete date of birth (97% or more); the likelihood of a consistent diagnosis in the CCR and on at least one linked DAD record was higher for female breast (86.8% to 97.2%), colorectal (94.6% to 97.7%) and lung cancers (90.3% to 95.5%) than for prostate cancers (77.4% to 87.8%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Deterministically linking the CCR and DAD using personal HINs is a feasible and valid approach to obtaining hospitalization information about cancer patients.
authors.affiliation: Public Health Agency of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario.
authors.forename: Dianne
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zakaria
authors.affiliation: Health Statistics Division, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, Ontario.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Trudeau
authors.affiliation: Health Analysis Division, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, Ontario.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sanmartin
authors.affiliation: Health Statistics Division, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, Ontario.
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Murison
authors.affiliation: Health Analysis Division, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, Ontario.
authors.forename: Gisèle
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Carrière
authors.affiliation: Cancer Care Nova Scotia.
authors.forename: Maureen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: MacIntyre
authors.affiliation: CancerCare Manitoba and the University of Manitoba.
authors.forename: Donna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Turner
authors.affiliation: Canadian Institute for Health Information.
authors.forename: Brandon
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wagar
authors.affiliation: Cancer Care Ontario.
authors.forename: Mary Jane
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: King
authors.affiliation: Prince Edward Island Cancer Registry.
authors.forename: Kim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Vriends
authors.affiliation: British Columbia Cancer Registry.
authors.forename: Ryan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Woods
authors.affiliation: Canadian Partnership Against Cancer.
authors.forename: Gina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lockwood
authors.affiliation: Fichiers des Tumeurs du Québec.
authors.forename: Rabiâ
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Louchini
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology; D002170:Canada / Q000453:epidemiology; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology; D016208:Databases, Factual / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008498:Medical Record Linkage / Q000379:methods*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology; D012042:Registries / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017678:Sex Distribution
keywords: Administrative databases; data linkage; health care; health insurance number