EVALUATING A NEW ALGORITHM FOR LINKING MATERNAL AND NEWBORN MEDICAL RECORDS

Linking maternal and newborn medical records is a valuable tool for as sessing the relationship between maternal variables and fetal outcome. This study evaluated the Center for Disease Control's newly developed maternal and newborn medical record linkage system, a computer progra m that uses weighted variables to determine the most likely maternal a nd newborn pairs. Any newborn record not achieving a set minimum score with a maternal record remains nonmatched. The objectives of the stud y were to estimate the program's matching accuracy, determine causes o f incorrect matches and nonmatches, develop suggestions for program re visions, and evaluate the effects of the revisions. The study sample i ncluded 521 matched and 247 nonmatched maternal and newborn medical re cords from seven Ohio hospitals. Of all available newborn records (10, 068), 574 (5.7%) did not match with maternal records; for those in whi ch a match occurred, the authors ascertained a 98% matching accuracy a nd determined explanations for nonmatched and incorrectly matched reco rds. The authors noted a greater prevalence of birth defects and prema turity among newborns with nonmatched records than among those with ma tched records. Program revisions, therefore, focused on reducing the p revalence of nonmatched records. The revised program reduced the preva lence of nonmatched records from 5.7% to 3% but reduced matching accur acy. (C) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.