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The optimal size of attributor for use with the University of Manchester Drug Misuse Database
Author(s) -
CRABBE TIM,
DONMALL MICHAEL
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
addiction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.424
H-Index - 193
eISSN - 1360-0443
pISSN - 0965-2140
DOI - 10.1046/j.1360-0443.1996.9110154713.x
Subject(s) - database , drug , set (abstract data type) , medicine , computer science , psychiatry , programming language
This paper describes the anonymous, attributable code which is applied to different individuals when they are reported to the regional drug misuse databases using the University of Manchester system. It then reports on the effect of removing selected data items included in the attributor on the system's abuity to distinguish between different drug users reported to the database. All of the attributable codes that did net use the full set of data items were found to reduce the system's ability to distinguish between the reporting of new drug users and new episodes of drug use for users previously reported to the database.