SLK-581 Guide for use This guide provides a quick reference to the collection of the Statistical linkage key 581 (SLK-581) used for the
Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Services National Minimum Data Set (AODTS NMDS).
What is the SLK-581?
The SLK-581 is a client identifier that is based on information that is likely to be:
• unique to each client
• relatively stable across a client’s lifetime
• reliably reported by clients across
multiple treatment settings.
This means that records with the same SLK-581 combination are likely to belong to the same client, which means the
SLK 581 can be used to estimate the number of clients who use AODT services and analyse clients’ movements between agencies over time.
Structure
The structure of the complete SLK-581 element is: XXXXXDDMMYYYYN.
The SLK-581 is made up of four elements:
• 3 Letters of family name
• 2 Letters of given name
• Date of birth • Sex.
See overleaf for which letters to record
Additionally, the SLK-581 is to be submitted with a companion element:
Date accuracy indicator
The relationship between the elements relating to the SLK-581 is shown in the figure below. Further information on each element is listed below.
SLK-581
(element)
XXX
XX
DDMMYYYY
N
Date accuracy indicator
Letters of family name
Letters of given name
Date of Birth
Sex
Submission and validation
All jurisdictions indicated their preference to submit the SLK-581 as a single, complete, element. To avoid additional changes to collection and validation systems, Date of birth and Sex will still be collected as independent elements in the episode file.
• Date accuracy indicator should be placed in column 27 of the episode file.
• Completed SLK-581 should be placed in column 28 of the episode file.
Validation rules for SLK-581 data:
• SLK-581 and Date accuracy indicator must not be blank (default 99999010119009 to be used for missing SLK)
• SLK-581 is 14 characters long
• The first 5 characters of SLK-581 are either letters of the alphabet or the numbers ‘2’ and ‘9’
• ‘2’ should always be preceded by a letter of the alphabet in Letters of the family name and Letters of given name
• Unknown Letters of the family name and Letters of given name should be coded with consecutive ‘9’s and not repeated letters
(ZZ) or string of letters (ABC)
• If Date of birth is unknown (default 01011900), then Date accuracy indicator is ‘UUU’
• Date accuracy indicator is a three letters combination of ‘A’, ‘U’ and ‘E’.
Confidentiality
The AIHW is subject to a strict privacy regime which has its basis in two pieces of legislation: the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Act 1987 and the Privacy Act 1988. Under these pieces of legislation, no one (not even the police or courts) has access to information collected for the AODTS NMDS.
To meet the requirements of these Acts, the AIHW has a number of privacy protocols, including:
• formal delegation of responsibilities to data custodians within the Institute
• rules that ensure data subjects cannot be identified with the release of statistical information
• encryption of linkage keys.
In the case of data requests made to the AIHW by other organisations or individuals, state and territory jurisdictions are the owners of the information collected for the AODTS NMDS for their jurisdiction. As such, the AIHW requires the approval of jurisdictions for data requests containing jurisdiction-specific data. Release of unit record data that includes the SLK data item requires approval from the AIHW Ethics Committee as well as approval from all jurisdictions.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare SLK-581 Guide for use July 2016
[XXX]XXDDMMYYYYN—Letters of the family name
In the first three characters of the SLK-581, the agency should record the second, third and fifth letters of the client’s family name.
Example: = HAS
Short names: place a ‘2’ in the place of the missing letter(s). Example: = EE2
Non alphabetic characters: ignore non alphabetic characters (hyphens, dashes etc.) when counting letters. Example: ’Ran-Miller = RAM
Agency Reminder
Agencies should ask for a person’s ‘given name’ and ‘family name’ separately, as some people present family name first when asked their name. They should avoid the terms ‘first name’, ‘last name’ or ‘surname’.
XXX[XX]DDMMYYYYN—Letters of given name
In the fourth and fifth characters of the SLK-581, the agency should record the second and third letters of the client’s given name.
Example: = OR
Short names: place a ‘2’ in the place of the missing character(s). Example: = O2
Non alphabetic characters: ignore non-alphabetic characters when counting letters. Example: Li- = IA Missing names: used code ‘99’
XXXXXDDMMYYYY[N]—Sex
The fourteenth character in the SLK-581 represents the sex
of a person.
In the AODTS NMDS, acceptable values for sex are: Code Value
1 Male
2 Female
9 Unknown
Code 9 is primarily for use in administrative collections when transferring data from data sets where the item has not been collected.
Example: sex = Female Sex = 2
XXXXX[DDMMYYYY]N—Date of Birth The sixth through to the thirteenth characters of the SLK-581
represent the person’s date of birth.
• DD represents the day in the month a person was born
• MM represents the month in the year a person was born
• YYYY represents the year a person was born
Example:
Birth date = 4 November 1983 Date of Birth = 04111983
Reminder
Dates of birth should not contain dots or any other non-numbers.
A date accuracy indicator is to be
reported in conjunction with all dates of birth.
Date accuracy indicator
Date accuracy indicator is a three character code that indicates the extent to which the recorded Date of birth is accurate, estimated or unknown.
This indicator has many possible combinations depending on whether the day, month or year of birth is estimated or unknown.
Common examples of Date accuracy indicator codes include:
Level of accuracy
Accurate
Estimated
Unknown
(D)ay (M)onth
A A
E E
U U
(Y)ear
A
E
U
AAA: If a date is from a reliable source and is known as accurate then the Date accuracy indicator should be AAA.
Example: Dorina was born on 4 October 1983 and Date of birth is recorded as 04101983. Date accuracy indicator = AAA.
UUE: If only the age of the person is estimated and there is no certainty of the accuracy of this, then the Date accuracy indicator should be UUE. That is, the day and month are ‘unknown’ and the year is ‘estimated’.
Example: Dorina’s birth date is unknown but it is estimated that she is about 30. Her date of birth is recorded as 01011982. Date accuracy indicator = UUE.
UUU: No information is known about the person’s date of birth or age.
Example: Dorina’s birth date and age was unknown. Her date of birth is recorded as the default date- 01011900. Date accuracy indicator = UUU.
Date component (for a format DDMMYYYY )
Need more information?
Find more information on the data elements in the Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Services National Minimum Data Set: Data Collection Manual.
Go to: http://www.aihw.gov.au/alcohol-and-other-drugs/aodts-submission-guidelines/
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare SLK-581 Guide for use July 2016