Linking prison health care data to other health data: A novel data linkage study in Northern Ireland

ObjectivesWe describe the progress made in the development of a novel linked database designed to improve understanding about the health, mental health, health service use and mortality risk of people following their release from prison in Northern Ireland (NI).
 MethodsThis is a collaborative project between the ADRC-NI and the NI Healthcare in Prisons service (HIPS) - South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust (SEHSCT). Data about the health of all adult prisoners between 2012 and 2021 (HIPS) will be linked to a healthcare population spine (National Health Application and Infrastructure Services - NHAIS) via a Health and Care Number (HCN), a unique health identifier for each patient in the NHS in Northern Ireland. Data will subsequently be linked to prescribing data (Enhanced Prescribing Database - EPD), in-patient services data (mental health) and mortality data (General Register Office - GRO).
 ResultsEthical and governance approvals have been obtained. A stepwise approach to the development of this novel health database will be presented. Data cleaning has been undertaken by the HIPS team and records with missing HCNs have been identified and updated. Extraction of p