Linking death reports from the Malaysian Family Life Survey-2 with birth and death certificates

The Malaysian Family Life Survey--2 (MFLS-2) was a population-based survey conducted in Peninsular Malaysia in 1988-89. Through detailed birth histories, it attempted to collect information on all pregnancies and their outcomes from ever-married women, as well as socioeconomic and health services-utilization data that might have affected mortality. The survey did not, however, collect information on the causes of infant death. The two objectives of this study were to assess the feasibility of linking all reported deaths among live births of women interviewed in the MFLS-2 to the birth and death certificates kept by the National Registration Department, and to determine the causes of death from the successfully matched death certificates. This information could be used in the development of specific health programs to decrease infant and child mortality. In this study, the success rates for linking survey data to birth and death certificates were 34.5% and 31.8% respectively. Methodological problems faced during the study are discussed, as are the strengths and limitations of record linking as a means of increasing the utility of birth histories for studying the causes of death. Ways to improve linkage rates of survey data with the national birth and death registration are also suggested.
Study name: Malaysian Family Life Survey (MFLS-2)