Errors in postcode to enumeration district mapping and their effect on small area analyses of health data.

Abstract

Health research often seeks to associate individuals to their socio-economic circumstances by linking an individual's postcode to their Census enumeration district (ED). As part of a study into health visitor resource allocation the objective here is to quantify the errors that arise in attaching ED level deprivation scores to records and counts of records by ED when records are matched to EDs via their postcodes rather than their exact address.