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Figure 1 | BMC Medical Research Methodology

Figure 1

From: Investigating linkage rates among probabilistically linked birth and hospitalization records

Figure 1

Use of thresholds to minimise false positive and negative matched records. In this theoretical example the two vertical lines show the lower and upper cut-offs (thresholds) that are used in probabilistic record linkage to accept or reject matches. The amount of false positive and negative matches can be managed by moving the thresholds. If false matches are unacceptably high the upper cut-off can be moved to the right, creating more clerical reviews and minimising false decisions from automatically accepting records as a match. A similar process can be used to minimise false negatives.

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