Abstract
Government records are often used as benchmarks or gold-standard metrics against which survey data are evaluated. At the individual level, these official records may provide researchers with the opportunity to validate self-reports or augment survey measures with additional data. However, in order to accomplish this, it is first necessary to link the survey respondent and their data to their official government records and this is rarely a straightforward task. This chapter outlines several of the challenges faced by researchers seeking to link survey data to government records and overviews some of the methods that have been demonstrated to be effective at making these links. The chapter also proposes areas for future research that will make matching easier and more effective.
References and Further Reading
Baker, R., Shiels, C., Stevenson, K., Fraser, R., & Stone, M. (2000). What proportion of patients refuse consent to data collection from their records for research purposes? British Journal of General Practice, 50(457), 655–656.
Belin, T. R., & Rubin, D. B. (1995). A Method for Calibrating False-Match Rates in Record Linkage. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 90(430), 694–707. http://doi.org/10.1080/01621459.1995.10476563
Fellegi, I. P., & Sunter, A. B. (1969). A Theory for Record Linkage. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 64(328), 1183–1210.
Kreuter, F., Müller, G., & Trappmann, M. (2010). Nonresponse and Measurement Error in Employment Research: Making Use of Administrative Data. Public Opinion Quarterly, 74(5), 880–906. http://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfq060
Olson, J. A. (1999). Linkages with data from Social Security administrative records in the Health and Retirement Study. Soc Sec Bull, 62(2): 73–85.
Winkler, W. E. (1999). The State of Record Linkage and Current Research Problems. Statistical Research Division. U.S. Census Bureau Statistical Research Division.
Yawn, B. P., Yawn, R. A., Geier, G. R., Xia, Z. S., & Jacobsen, S. J. (1998). The impact of requiring patient authorization for use of data in medical records research. Journal of Family Practice, 47(5), 361–365.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sakshaug, J.W. (2018). Methods of Linking Survey Data to Official Records. In: Vannette, D., Krosnick, J. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Survey Research . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54395-6_32
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54395-6_32
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-54394-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-54395-6
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)