title: Creating a Powerful Platform to Explore Health in a Correctional Population: A Record Linkage Study.
abstract: We used record linkage to create a data repository of health information of persons who were federally incarcerated in Ontario and Canada. We obtained records from 56,867 adults who were federally incarcerated between January 1, 1998 and December 31, 2011 from the Correctional Service of Canada; 15,248 records belonged to individuals residing in Ontario, Canada. We linked these records to the Registered Persons Database (RPDB) which contained records from 18,116,996 individuals eligible for health care in Ontario. Out of 56,867 OMS records, 22,844 (40.2%) were linked to the RPDB. Looking only at those incarcerated in Ontario, 98%, (14 953 of 15248) records were linked to RPDB. Most records of persons in Ontario-based facilities were linked deterministically. Linkage rates were lower for women, minority groups, and substance users. In conclusion, record linkage enabled the creation of a valuable data repository: there are no electronic medical records for correctional populations in Canada, making it more difficult to profile their health.
authors.affiliation: Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.|Centre for Urban Health Solutions, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Kathryn E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: McIsaac
authors.affiliation: Correctional Service Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Shanna
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Farrell MacDonald
authors.affiliation: Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Sunnybrook Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Nelson
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Chong
authors.affiliation: Correctional Service Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moser
authors.affiliation: Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.|Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Sunnybrook Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.|Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Rahim
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Moineddin
authors.affiliation: Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.|Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Sunnybrook Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.|Rehabilitation Sciences Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.|Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Colantonio
authors.affiliation: Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Sunnybrook Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.|Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Avery
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nathens
authors.affiliation: Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.|Centre for Urban Health Solutions, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.|Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Sunnybrook Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Flora I
authors.initials: FI
authors.lastname: Matheson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D055991:Health Records, Personal; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008498:Medical Record Linkage / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009864:Ontario; D011329:Prisoners / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011330:Prisons