Multiple imputation for body mass index: lessons from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health

Healthcare costs are lower for adults who consume more vegetables; however, the association between healthcare costs and fruit and vegetable varieties is unclear. Our aim was to investigate the association between (i) baseline fruit and vegetable (F&V) varieties, and (ii) changes in F&V varieties over time with 15-year healthcare costs in an Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health. The data for Survey 3 (n = 8833 women, aged 50–55 years) and Survey 7 (n = 6955, aged 62–67 years) of the 1946–1951 cohort were used. The F&V variety was assessed using the Fruit and Vegetable Variety (FAVVA) index calculated from the Cancer Council of Victoria’s Dietary Questionnaire for Epidemiological Studies food frequency questionnaire. The baseline FAVVA and change in FAVVA were analysed as continuous predictors of Medicare claims/costs by using multiple regression analyses. Healthy weight women made, on average, 4.3 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.7–6.8) fewer claims for every 10-point-higher FAVVA. Healthy weight women with higher fruit varieties incurred fewer charges; however, this was reversed for women overweight/obese. Across the sample, for every 10-point increase in FAVVA over time, women made 4.3 (95% CI 1.9–6.8) fewer claims and incurred $309.1 (95% CI $129.3–488.8) less in charges over 15 years. A higher F&V variety is associated with a small reduction in healthcare claims for healthy weight women only. An increasing F&V variety over time is associated with lower healthcare costs.

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Twenty Years of Data Linkage in The Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health

International Journal for Population Data Science ◽

10.23889/ijpds.v5i5.1500 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 5 (5) ◽

Author(s):

Colleen Loos ◽

Gita Mishra ◽

Annette Dobson ◽

Leigh Tooth

Keyword(s):

Longitudinal Study ◽

Data Collection ◽

Women’S Health ◽

Women's Health ◽

Linked Data ◽

Data Linkage ◽

Data Access ◽

National Study ◽

Australian Longitudinal Study ◽

Data Collections

IntroductionLinked health record collections, when combined with large longitudinal surveys, are a rich research resource to inform policy development and clinical practice across multiple sectors. Objectives and ApproachThe Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (ALSWH) is a national study of over 57,000 women in four cohorts. Survey data collection commenced in 1996. Over the past 20 years, ALSWH has also established an extensive data linkage program. The aim of this poster is to provide an overview of ALSWH’s program of regularly up-dated linked data collections for use in parallel with on-going surveys, and to demonstrate how data are made widely available to research collaborators. ResultsALSWH surveys collect information on health conditions, ageing, reproductive characteristics, access to health services, lifestyle, and socio-demographic factors. Regularly updated linked national and state administrative data collections add information on health events, health outcomes, diagnoses, treatments, and patterns of service use. ALSWH’s national linked data collections, include Medicare Benefits Schedule, Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, the National Death Index, the Australian Cancer Database, and the National Aged Care Data Collection. State and Territory hospital collections include Admitted Patients, Emergency Department and Perinatal Data. There are also substudies, such as the Mothers and their Children’s Health Study (MatCH), which involves linkage to children’s educational records. ALSWH has an internal Data Access Committee along with systems and protocols to facilitate collaborative multi-sectoral research using de-identified linked data. Conclusion / ImplicationsAs a large scale Australian longitudinal multi-jurisdictional data linkage and sharing program, ALSWH is a useful model for anyone planning similar research.

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