Teenage pregnancy rates and the age and sex of general practitioners

doi:10.1136/bmj.321.7257.381/a

BMJ 2000;321:381 ( 5 August )

Letters

Teenage pregnancy rates and the age and sex of general practitioners

Record linkage analysis could have been used

Sex and age discrimination in recruitment for general practice is not justified by teenage pregnancy survey

Reports of urban and rural differences are contradictory

Author's reply

Record linkage analysis could have been used

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ Hippisley-Cox et al lament their inability to identify teenagers with repeat pregnancies and, by inference, repeatabortions.¹ The Trent regional hospital admissions databaseapparently contains all details of hospital admissions for residentsin Trent, whether treatment was provided in Trent or not. Doesthis database contain the NHS number, the only unique identificationnumber that is almost universally held among the population ofEngland and Wales?² If so, record linkage analysis could havebeen used to identify repeat pregnancies and repeat abortions,especially since Hippisley-Cox et al compared their data withthose of the Office for National Statistics, of which the NHScentral register is a part. The goal of record linkage is to linkquickly and accurately records corresponding to the same personor entity. A record linkage system exists in England that recentlyincluded the matching of general practice records with hospitaland vital records to . . . [Full text of this article]

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