Improved assessment of the accuracy of record linkage via an extended MaCSim approach
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Record linkage is the process of bringing together the same entity from overlapping data sources, both administrative and substantive while removing duplicates. Statistical, health, government and business organisations often link administrative, survey, population census and other files to create a new file with complete information for comprehensive analysis. It is also crucial to assess the accuracy of the linkages to make valid inferences based on the combined data. Interestingly, there has been limited work on this issue of record linkage accuracy to date. In a previous paper, we proposed a Markov Chain based Monte Carlo simulation approach (MaCSim) for assessing linking method and illustrated the utility of the approach using a synthetic dataset provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) based on realistic data settings. MaCSim utilizes two linked files that have been previously linked on similar types of data to create an agreement matrix and then simulates the matrix using a proposed algorithm developed to generate re-sampled versions of the agreement matrix. A defined linking method is used in each simulation to link the files and the accuracy of the linking method is assessed. In this paper, we aim to improve this method by calculating a similarity weight to create the agreement matrix. This weight allows partial agreement of the linking variable values for record pairs in the form of a similarity weight. To assess the average accuracy of linking, correctly linked proportions are investigated for each record. Test results on this extension of the MaCSim approach using the similarity weight concept show higher accuracy of the assessment of linkages.
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