Table 2.

Data sets for linkage

Database	Description	Key variables
NSW Admitted Patient Data Collection (APDC)	Records of all hospital separations (including discharges, transfers and deaths) from all public and private hospitals, public multipurpose services and day procedure centres in NSW.	Records for each episode of care include date of admission and separation, emergency status, principal and additional diagnoses, treatment procedures, mode of separation and facility identifier.
NSW Emergency Depatment Data Collection (EDDC)	Records of all presentations to emergency departments in major metropolitan and major non-metropolitan public hospitals in NSW.	Records for each episode of care include date of admission and separation, emergency status, diagnosis, mode of arrival and separation and facility identifier.
NSW Mental Health Ambulatory (NSW MH-AMB) Data Collection	Records of episodes of care delivered by NSW ambulatory mental health service units to non-admitted individuals, including day programmes, psychiatric outpatients and outreach services.	Records for each contact include date of contact, diagnosis and services delivered. Facility information includes provider group, provider role and service category and facility location.
NSW Central Cancer Registry (NSW CCR)	Records of all new cases of cancer (defined as an occurrence of a primary malignant neoplasm in an organ of a particular person; excluding occurrence of skin cancers other than melanoma) diagnosed in NSW residents.	Data include clinical details of individuals for example, cancer group, degree of spread, date and age of diagnosis. If applicable, information regarding date and age of death, and cause of death is also included.
NSW Reoffending Database (NSW ROD)	Court records, with all finalised court appearances in NSW Children’s, Local, District and Supreme Courts, and juvenile detention and adult incarceration in NSW.	Records include date and type of offence, outcome of court appearance, conviction date and penalty. Incarceration information includes commencement and conclusion date of incarceration, conviction date.
NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages (NSW RBDM) and the Australian Coordinating Registry Cause of Death Unit Record File (COD URF)	The two data sets contain mortality information for deaths occurring in NSW, which also includes ABS death registration data. The COD URF is held by the NSW Ministry of Health Secure Analytics for Population Health Research and Intelligence.	Data include date of death and contributing or multiple cause of death codes (where relevant).

ABS, Australian Bureau of Statistics; ACR, Australian Coordinating Registry; APDC, Admitted Patients Data Collection; COD URF, Cause of Death Unit Record File; EDDC, Emergency Department Data Collection; MH-AMB, Mental Health Ambulatory Data Collection; NSW, New South Wales; RBDM, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages; ROD, Reoffending Database.