Fuller Daniel, Shareck Martine
University of Saskatchewan.
Can J Public Health. 2014 Sep 17;105(6):e453-5. doi: 10.17269/cjph.105.4721.
This article discusses the implications for health research of Canada Post's transition from door-to-door postal delivery to community mailboxes. We argue that using postal code data to geocode participants based on community mailboxes will result in positional and linkage errors. Positional errors involve misplacing people's residential location. Linkage errors result from incorrectly linking residential location from community mailboxes to census or health administrative data. The article discusses examples of how the transition to community mailboxes could have important implications for health research. We encourage research examining the extent of positional and linkage errors on the 11 pilot communities transitioning to community mailboxes in the fall of 2014.
本文探讨了加拿大邮政从挨家挨户投递邮件转变为使用社区邮箱服务对健康研究的影响。我们认为，基于社区邮箱使用邮政编码数据对参与者进行地理编码会导致位置和关联错误。位置错误涉及误置人们的居住地点。关联错误则是由于将社区邮箱的居住地点与人口普查或健康管理数据错误关联所致。本文讨论了向社区邮箱转变如何可能对健康研究产生重要影响的实例。我们鼓励开展研究，考察2014年秋季向社区邮箱转变的11个试点社区中位置和关联错误的程度。
