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A Successful Strategy for Linking Anonymous Data from Students' and Parents' Questionnaires Using Self-Generated Identification Codes

Vacek, Jaroslav
Author Vacek, Jaroslav Department of Addictology, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Apolinářská 4, 120 00, Prague, Czech Republic
Vonkova, Hana
Author Vonkova, Hana Department of Addictology, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Apolinářská 4, 120 00, Prague, Czech Republic Department of Education and Institute for Research and Development of Education, Faculty of Education, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
Gabrhelík, Roman
Author Gabrhelík, Roman ORCID Department of Addictology, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Apolinářská 4, 120 00, Prague, Czech Republic. roman.gabrhelik@lf1.cuni.cz

Prevention science. 2017 May ; 18 (4) : 450-458.

Prev Sci
ISSN 1573-6695 | 1389-4986
Source

Language English Country United States Media print

Document type Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Persistent link https://www.medvik.cz/link/pmid28337692

PubMed 28337692
DOI 10.1007/s11121-017-0772-6
PII: 10.1007/s11121-017-0772-6
Knihovny.cz E-resources

Keywords
Anonymity, Children, Codes, Linking, Parents, Prevention, Students,
MeSH
Child MeSH
Humans MeSH
Surveys and Questionnaires MeSH
Parents psychology MeSH
Students psychology MeSH
Check Tag
Child MeSH
Humans MeSH
Male MeSH
Female MeSH
Publication type
Journal Article MeSH
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH

We conducted a feasibility study for matching children (N = 2571, average age 12 years, 50.4% female) and their parents (N = 1931, average age 41 years, 83.3% female) represented by an anonymous self-generated identification code (SGIC) and assessed its methodological properties. We used a nine-character SGIC with the children and a mirrored version of the same code with the parents. The average overall error rate in generating the SGIC was 9.7% (4.0% in the parents and 13.9% in the children). We were able to link a total of 1765 parents' and children's codes uniquely (94.9% of all possible dyads) with any four-character combination and the employment of the "school" variable. The overall matching quality of linking using the SGIC only is characterized by precision (positive predictive value) of 0.979, recall (sensitivity, true positive rate) of 0.934, and an F-measure (harmonic mean of precision and recall) of 0.956. The analysis of the discrepant characters in the dyads identified the paternal grandmother's name and eye color as those varying most often. This study is the first to look at SGIC match rates and error and omission rates in linking different subjects into dyads in prevention research. We identified a high number of unique child-parent matches while guaranteeing anonymity to the participants. We provided evidence that our SGIC is a suitable tool for between-group linking procedures and has a highly successful matching rate, while maintaining anonymity in the school-based prevention study samples.

Department of Addictology 1st Faculty of Medicine Charles University Apolinářská 4 120 00 Prague Czech Republic

Department of Education and Institute for Research and Development of Education Faculty of Education Charles University Prague Czech Republic

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