Reducing number of postcodes that cannot be ascribed would increase validity of method

BMJ 1995;311:876 (30 September)

Letters

Reducing number of postcodes that cannot be ascribed would increase validity of method

EDITOR,--Glen Scrivener and David C E F Lloyd conclude thatallocating census data to general practice populations is notsufficiently accurate for the purposes of explaining variationsin prescribing despite their finding correlation coefficientsof up to 0.84 from two of their methods.¹ They acknowledge thatperfect correlation is impossible in an ecological comparison.Nevertheless, the correlation coefficients might have been higherif the 11710 patients (3.2%) whose postcode could not be matchedhad been included in the analysis. This proportion of postcodesthat could not be ascribed is fairly high. We have developeda link between enumeration districts and general practices inWest Glamorgan to study variation in use of hospitals as wellas drug prescribing; only 1% of postcodes held on the West GlamorganFamily Health Services Authority's register cannot be matchedon the Post Office address file (personal communication, RoyalMail address manager, Post Office). Local inquiry . . . [Full text of this article]

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Relevant Article

Allocating census data to general practice populations: implications for study of prescribing variation at practice level: Glen Scrivener and David C E F Lloyd
BMJ 1995 311: 163-165. [Abstract] [Full Text]

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