USING ADMINISTRATIVE HEALTH DATA TO MONITOR POTENTIAL ADVERSE HEALTH-EFFECTS IN ENVIRONMENTAL-STUDIES

Following episodes of environmental contamination, health professional s are limited in their ability to detect adverse health effects in sur rounding communities due to lack of relevant baseline health data, res ources, and appropriate control populations. The objective of this stu dy was to ascertain the feasibility of using administrative health dat a for these purposes. The Manitoba Health Services Commission's (MHSC) database is comprehensive since universal health care is free in Cana da. As part of an evaluation of two proposed hazardous waste treatment sites, the feasibility of using MHSC's data was tested by (a) definin g the two study and control sites through use of MHSC's population reg istry and (b) determining baseline morbidity rates through analysis of MHSC's physician visit payment files; diagnoses were coded using ICD- 9-CM. The results indicated that there were some differences between t he groups studied in the age- and sex-standardized morbidity rates of diagnoses potentially influenced by exposures to chemicals. Use of adm inistrative data provided by a national health service is an inexpensi ve and efficient way to create and follow potentially exposed cohorts residing in defined communities. Despite limitations related to small populations in exposed communities and lack of standardized diagnostic criteria by physicians, this method should be explored further in env ironmental studies. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.