Using general practice data for chronic disease prevalence: the impact of record linkage on estimation accuracy

Richard J Varhol1, Crystal Man Ying Lee2,3, Sean Randall3

  • 1School of Population Health, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia. rvarhol@curtin.edu.au.

Summary

Linking patient records across general practices improves chronic disease prevalence estimates. Restricting analyses to active patients overestimates disease burden, impacting healthcare planning and resource allocation.

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