Chung C S, Steinhoff P G, Mi M P, Smith R G, Burch T A
Public Health Rep. 1979 Sep-Oct;94(5):454-8.
This study examined the completeness and accuracy of reporting induced abortions to the official agency by following up documented cases of abortions performed in hospitals in Hawaii for the years 1970--74. The following two sets of records were initially linked by computer on the basis of first name, maiden name, date of the event, age, and ethnic background: (a) a total of 18,531 induced abortions ascertained in hospitals with complete linking information and (b) official fetal death and live birth records filed at the State health department. Overall, 96.1 percent of the hospital abortions were matched in the official certificates. Of 17,550 abortions classified as elective, 98.7 percent were so recorded in the certificate file, whereas the remainder were reported as mostly either therapeutic or unknown for cause of fetal death. When the probability of matches for those abortions without complete linking information and possible errors in the information were considered, the estimates of underreporting to the health department were a maximum of 3.9 percent and a minimum of 1.2 percent; the mean value was 2.6 percent. The extent of underreporting of induced abortions is becoming serious with the widespread practice of abortion procedures in nonhospital institutions in recent years. The results of the study also demonstrated the utility of the record-linkage process in checking data for completeness and accuracy or studying separate vital events on the same persons.
本研究通过对1970 - 1974年夏威夷医院记录在案的堕胎病例进行随访，考察了向官方机构报告人工流产情况的完整性和准确性。以下两组记录最初通过计算机根据名字、婚前姓氏、事件日期、年龄和种族背景进行关联：(a) 在医院确定的共有18531例人工流产，且具备完整的关联信息；(b) 提交给州卫生部门的官方死胎和活产记录。总体而言，96.1%的医院堕胎病例在官方证书中得到匹配。在17550例被归类为选择性堕胎的病例中，98.7%在证书档案中如此记录，而其余病例大多被报告为治疗性堕胎或胎儿死亡原因不明。当考虑那些没有完整关联信息的堕胎病例匹配的可能性以及信息中可能存在的错误时，向卫生部门漏报的估计最高为3.9%，最低为1.2%；平均值为2.6%。近年来，随着非医院机构堕胎手术的广泛开展，人工流产漏报的程度日益严重。该研究结果还证明了记录关联过程在检查数据完整性和准确性或研究同一人群不同生命事件方面的效用。
