Data Linkage Strategies to Advance Youth Suicide Prevention

The Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research (AHRQ) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has published the report, Data Linkage Strategies to Advance Youth Suicide Prevention. The report sought to identify and describe data systems that can be linked to data from studies of youth suicide prevention interventions, and to identify analytic approaches to advance youth suicide prevention research. It shows that there is potential for linking existing data systems with suicide prevention efforts to assess the broader and extended impact of suicide prevention interventions. However, sparse availability of data dictionaries and lack of adherence to standard data elements limit the potential utility of linking prevention efforts with data systems.