MDI Parent and Community Resources

The MDI is voluntary

The MDI research study is voluntary. Once a school district has signed on, the schools, teachers, parents/guardians, and children are able to choose whether or not they participate. If a parent or guardian does not wish his or her child to be involved in completing the survey, they just need to let the school know. In addition, children can also choose not to participate.

Parents can request a copy of the MDI questionnaire by contacting mdi@help.ubc.ca.

Facts about Personal Information  

The MDI questionnaire uses a child's date of birth and postal code as an identifier so that they don't duplicate records for a student.

Personal Education Numbers are used as a unique identifier to allow MDI data to be linked with other administrative data sets.  Linking the MDI data to other databases such as the EDI provides insights into groups of children's health and answers important research questions.

Postal codes are collected to facilitate neighbourhood level mapping of the results. To see an example of a map and to understand how MDI results are shared, please visit the Maps and Data page.

Safeguarding MDI Data

Safeguarding data is a responsibility HELP takes very seriously. Please visit our Safeguarding Personal Information page to learn more about how HELP safeguards research data and protects the confidentiality and privacy of individuals.

Does HELP have parental consent to gather MDI data?

Consistent with UBC research ethics board guidelines, MDI research uses passive consent.  Passive consent is common in population health studies because it is not often feasible to get the active consent of a large population.

With passive consent, parents and students are fully informed on the nature of the project and the use of the data but that they do not have to actively complete a consent form.  HELP provides detailed introduction letters to all parents in six languages.  Any parent who does not want their child involved in the research can notify their teacher within four weeks of receiving the letter.  Their child will immediately be withdrawn from the study.

MDI Fact Sheets

The MDI Fact Sheet (PDF)

MDI Briefs

MDI Policy Brief (PDF)

Parent Letters

Parent letters are sent to all parents of participating classes prior to the questionnaire being completed. They include information about the MDI project and contact information should the parents have additional questions. They are available in eight languages.

Grade 7 Parent Letters
The pilot of the Grade 7 MDI will be taking place in the Vancouver School District at the end of January, 2013.

English, Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Punjabi, Spanish, Vietnamese

Grade 4 Parent Letters
The Grade 4 survey occurs in November of each year. The survey is now closed.

English: Summary Letter | Detailed Letter
Arabic: Summary Letter | Detailed Letter
Chinese, Simplified: Summary Letter | Detailed Letter
Chinese, Traditional: Summary Letter | Detailed Letter
Korean: Summary Letter | Detailed Letter
Punjabi: Summary Letter | Detailed Letter
Spanish: Summary Letter | Detailed Letter
Vietnamese: Summary Letter | Detailed Letter