Enhancing Human Biomonitoring Studies through Linkage to Administrative Registers–Status in Europe

Record linkage of human biomonitoring (HBM) survey data with administrative register data can be used to enhance available datasets and complement the possible shortcomings of both data sources. Through record linkage, valuable information on medical history (diagnosed diseases, medication use, etc.) and follow-up information on health and vital status for established cohorts can be obtained. In this study, we investigated the availability of health registers in different EU Member States and EEA countries and assessed whether they could be linked to HBM studies. We found that the availability of administrative health registers varied substantially between European countries as well as the availability of unique personal identifiers that would facilitate record linkage. General protocols for record linkage were similar in all countries with ethical and data protections approval, informed consent, approval by administrative register owner, and linkage conducted by the register owner. Record linkage enabled cross-sectional survey data to be used as cohort study data with available follow-up and health endpoints. This can be used for extensive exposure-health effect association analysis. Our study showed that this is possible for many, but not all European countries.