Summary and conclusions, Miljøstyrelsen

Forprojekt om samkøring af registerdata for miljø og sundhed

Summary and conclusions

An improved health surveillance of and research into environmental health effects are very much desired in Denmark.

It is assumed that Denmark owns several environmental registers of a validity that make them immediately or with a few adjustments applicable in an improved health surveillance programme.

It is likewise assumed that the most important health registers have a completeness that make them useful for health surveillance purpose.

Going through all the Danish registers for environment and health 30 registers for environment and 24 for health, possessing the ability of external linkage, have been identified. Relevance of the registers´ content, format, completeness etc. and their appropriateness in "explaining" environmental health effects has been assessed, and based on this the most relevant registers have been selected.

Several projects for linking the environmental and health registers in order to obtain better health surveillance and research opportunities are proposed.

The basic principle of linkage of the registers is through a geographical variable. The environmental registers all contain a geographical component that can be utilised directly or after upgrading. All health registers contain information on an individual level which - through the CPR-register (Central Population Register) - can be linked to geo-coded addresses, which are now available for the whole of Denmark.

It is proposed that the national, geographically based health database, which is under implementation in the National Board of Health, is utilised as the basis for linkage of health and environmental registers.

This will at the same time enhance the possibilities of a reinforced research in environmental health aspects.

It is also proposed that a catalogue of the most immediate technical and non-technical problems in connection with the linkage of registers is elaborated.

Finally it is proposed that an administrative structure to select and initiate the necessary projects is set up, encompassing the ministries involved, i.e. the Ministries of Environment, Food, Interior and Health.