Abstract
IntroductionPopulation health surveys are used to record person-reported outcome measures for chronic health conditions and provide a useful source of data when evaluating potential disease burdens. The reliability of survey-based prevalence estimates for chronic diseases is unclear nonetheless. This study applied methodological triangulation via a data linkage method to validate prevalence of selected chronic conditions (angina, myocardial infarction, heart failure, and asthma).MethodsLinked healthcare records were used for a combined cohort of 11,323 adults from the 2013 and 2014 sweeps of the Welsh Health Survey (WHS). The approach utilised consented survey data linked to primary and secondary care electronic health record (EHR) data back to 2002 within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank.ResultsThis descriptive study demonstrates validation of survey and clinical data using data linkage for selected chronic cardiovascular conditions and asthma with varied success. The results indicate that identifying cases for separate cardiovascular conditions was limited without specific medication codes for each condition, but more straightforward for asthma, where there was an extensive list of medications available. For asthma there was better agreement between prevalence estimates based on survey and clinical data as a result.ConclusionWhilst the results provide external validity for the WHS as an instrument for estimating the burden of chronic disease, they also indicate that a data linkage appproach can be used to produce comparable prevalence estimates using clinical data if a defined condition-specific set of clinical codes are available.
Highlights
Population health surveys are used to record person-reported outcome measures for chronic health conditions and provide a useful source of data when evaluating potential disease burdens
Whilst the results provide external validity for the Welsh Health Survey (WHS) as an instrument for estimating the burden of chronic disease, they indicate that a data linkage appproach can be used to produce comparable prevalence estimates using clinical data if a defined condition-specific set of clinical codes are available
Measures of chronic conditions from health surveys provide an indication of disease burden and potential need for health services for various conditions including those which carry a greater risk of mortality, for instance cardiovascular disease [2]
Summary
Population health surveys are used to record person-reported outcome measures for chronic health conditions and provide a useful source of data when evaluating potential disease burdens. The warehousing of fairly comprehensive clinical datasets (derived from electronic health records (EHR)) from primary and secondary care in a secure research environment as provided by the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank means that prevalence of diseases could potentially be measured on a whole population basis. The utility of the SAIL Databank has been expanded by storage of both healthcare and non-clinical data, such as survey data from the WHS and the NSW, in the same environment and with the potential to link these datasets together. Open Access under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en)
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