Featured research

Research Overview

Data linkage can be used to combine datasets collected for administrative or other purposes to enhance the information available for analyses for service delivery, evaluation and research. Analysts and users of results from linked data, such as policy makers, usually receive limited information about the linkage itself, because of restrictions designed to protect the privacy of the individuals whose data is held on the dataset. As a consequence, information is usually lacking on errors in the data and how these affect the accuracy of linkage between datasets and the validity of the results. ADRC-England used its expertise to develop a GUILD guidance (GUidance for Information about Linked Datasets) to makes recommendations about the information that should be shared at each step in the linkage pathway.

Benefit

The project will provide recommendations about the information that should be shared at each step in the linkage pathway, from data provision, data linkage and analyses of linked data, so that linkage error can be taken into account in the analyses and in the interpretation of the results.

Research team

Prof Ruth Gilbert, ADRC-E and Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, UCL

Rosemary Lafferty, Office for National Statistics

Dr Gareth Hagger-Johnson, UCL

Dr Katie Harron, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Prof Li-Chun Zhang, ADRC-E and University of Southampton

Prof Peter W.F. Smith, ADRC-E and University of Southampton

Prof Chris Dibben, ADRC-S and University of Edinburgh

Prof Harvey Goldstein, University of Bristol and UCL

Further information and links

GUILD: GUidance for Information about Linking Data sets, Journal of Public Health, March 2017, p. 1–​8