Abstract:
Capture-recapture methods are increasingly employed to correct for underascertainment
of cases in disease monitoring. Routine systems of disease monitoring, such as morbidity
registries, are often prone to specific threats of validity, such as in imperfect
diagnoses or imperfect record linkage. A quantitative assessment is given of the performance
of the two-source capture-recapture method for disease monitoring in the presence
of imperfect record linkage. The capture-recapture approach can eliminate underestimation
of the number of eligible cases, which is typical for most disease monitoring systems,
under certain conditions, including independence of sources of case ascertainment
and perfect record linkage. Correction for underestimation remains less than perfect,
however, in the case of false-positive matches, whereas application of capture-recapture
methods leads to overestimation of case numbers in the presence of false-negative
matches. A simple correction procedure to overcome potential overestimation by false-negative
matches is outlined.
Keywords:
Capture-Recapture Methods - Completeness - Disease Registry - Incidence - Prevalence
