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dc.contributor.authorRandall, Sean
dc.contributor.authorFerrante, Anna
dc.contributor.authorBoyd, James
dc.contributor.authorSemmens, James
dc.date.accessioned2017-01-30T12:00:08Z
dc.date.available2017-01-30T12:00:08Z
dc.date.created2013-07-08T20:00:20Z
dc.date.issued2013
dc.identifier.citationRandall, Sean M. and Ferrante, Anna M. and Boyd, James H. and Semmens, James B. 2013. The effect of data cleaning on record linkage quality. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making. 13 (64): pp. 1-10.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/17174
dc.description.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.

dc.publisherBiomed Central Ltd
dc.relation.urihttp://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6947/13/64
dc.subjectData cleaning
dc.subjectMedical record linkage
dc.subjectData quality
dc.titleThe effect of data cleaning on record linkage quality
dc.typeJournal Article
dcterms.source.volume13
dcterms.source.number64
dcterms.source.startPagee1
dcterms.source.endPagee10
dcterms.source.issn1472-6947
dcterms.source.titleBMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making
curtin.note

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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curtin.accessStatusOpen access


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