ST04 Research Across Multiple Systems: Probabilistic population Estimation (PPE)     Contributed

Diane Haynes Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute University of South Florida ,Shabnam Mehra Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute University of South Florida ,Rebecca Larsen, M.S.P.H.
Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute University of South Florida
Abstract: Today, social service administrators are examining client service utilization using cross system analsysis, because often a client's needs require accessing government funded services from multiple organizations. This can be done using secondary service da ta from those various organizations. One technical problem that arises is that organizations do not share common unique identifiers from which to link information together (ie., system #1 uses Social Security Number (SSN) and system #2 uses Personal Identi fication Number (PIN)). Different methods have been employed to deal with the issue of working with information across data sets when there is no common unique identifier. Probabilistic Population Estimation (PPE), Caseload Segregation/Integration Ratio (C /SIR), and ProbabilisticPopulation Matching (PPM) are methods used in our shop. This paper discussesthe use of SASŪ to perform the PPE & C/SIR methods of cross system analysis.These methods accurately identify the number of individuals who cross multiple s ystems without using a unique ID while keeping the identity of an individual confidential. PPE is a statistical procedure for deriving unduplicated counts of the number of people represented in data sets that do not include unique person identifiers and th e number of people shared by data sets that do not share common personal identifiers (Banks & Pandiani, 2001).

Biography:
Diane C. Haynes is a Research Faculty for the Policy & Services Research Data Center in the Dept. of Mental Health Law & Policy, Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, University of South Florida. She has a M.A. in Community Psychology, B.A. in Psychology, AAS in Computer Programming, Graduate Certificates in Women's Studies and Nonprofit Management. Her research interests include network analysis, mental health and substance abuse studies, and women's issues.

Shabnam Mehra is a Research Faculty for the Policy & Services Research Data Center in the Dept. of Mental Health Law & Policy, Louis de la Parte Flroida Mental Health Institute, University of South Florida. She has a Master of Science in Public Health from the Universsity of South Florida, Masters in Biotechnology form University of New South Wales, Sydney Austrailia. Her research interests include mental health and substance abuse issues in children and adults.

Rebecca G. Larsen is a Research Faculty for the Policy & Services Research Data Center in the Department of Mental Health Law & Policy at the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute at the University of South Florida. She received her Master of S cience in Public Health from the University of South Florida in 2000. Her current projects include analysis of comorbidity of mental and physical disorders and Medicaid/Medicare dual enrollment research.