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Table 2 Rules applied in the deterministic approach to classifying pairs as matches

From: Record linkage under suboptimal conditions for data-intensive evaluation of primary care in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Rules

(1) Exact agreement on the deterministic linkage key

(2) Exact agreement on the social security number (CPF)

(3) Exact agreement on the National register for social benefit (NIS)

(4) Exact agreement on date of birth

(5) The Levenshtein distance of the individual’s name < 3

(6) The Levenshtein distance of the mother’s name < 3

(7) Exact agreement on the individual’s name

Linkage processes’ criteria

 CadU versus FHR

(1, 5 and 6) OR (2, 5 and 6) OR (3, 5 and 6) OR (2 and 4) OR (3 and 4)

 CadU versus SIH

(1, 5 and 6)

 CadU versus SIM

(1, 5 and 6)

 FHR versus EMR

(1 and 5) OR (2 and 5) OR (4 and 7)

  1. The Levenshtein edit distance measures the minimum number of edits (insertions, deletions, or substitutions) required to change one name string into the other [18]