Linking dental and medical patient records for research
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Using linked dental and medical datasets to assess disease trajectory of periodontal disease and confirm the quality and validity of dental patient records for research
IRAS ID
277767
Contact name
Jianhua Wu
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Leeds
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 5 months, 17 days
Research summary
What is the relationship between periodontal disease and systemic disease, and whether the risk of developing systemic disease following periodontal disease treatment could be reduced?
This project aims to investigate the relationship between oral health and systemic disease using linked hospital and dental data. PD is the most common of oral conditions, affecting around 20-50% of the global population. Linked patient records from Leeds Teaching Hospital Trust (LTHT) and Leeds Dental Institute (LDI) Salud data of adults with PD will be compared to those without PD. Data will be retrospectively extracted, de-identified and linked into a dataset from w the Salud system began in 2014 to study start in 2020. Statistical techniques will demonstrate the relationship between PD and systemic diseases, the effect of PD treatment to the trajectory and elicit the impact of oral disease on subsequent disease and care trajectories. Routine LDI Salud data entry has previously been shown to be comprehensive and accurate enough for use in examining health and disease trajectories in patients. The study could prove to be pivotal to incorporate oral disease prevention in chronic systemic disease preventive initiatives to curtail the burden of disease in populations.The linked dataset will also be used as a proof-of-concept for potential creation of a registry of dental patient records, linked to medical records and other outcome measures. The dataset will be used to assess the quality and the validity of the routine data that we collect about our patients. The quality will be assessed using the following dimensions:
1. legibility and usability of data
2. completeness and missng data
3. uniqueness and duplication of data
4. timeliness and ability to follow a patient journey
5. validity (conforms to the syntax (format, type, range) of its definition)
6. accuracy and consistency,The validity of the data will be confirmed by using it to answer some simple questions about the patient group.
REC name
West Midlands - South Birmingham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/WM/0127
Date of REC Opinion
5 May 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion