CBS

CBS is legally mandated to produce statistics on societal issues and make them publicly available. More information can be found at: About us | CBS.

SHM uses CBS data to gain insights into groups of people for whom HIV diagnostics and treatment are not optimal. This includes individuals who receive a late HIV diagnosis, often resulting in severe health complications, as well as those who disengage from care or whose viral suppression with medication is insufficient. Understanding the socio-economic and demographic backgrounds of these groups helps drive targeted improvements in HIV prevention and care.

To access CBS data, an institution must request authorization from the Director-General of CBS. SHM and the Amsterdam Health Technology Institute (ahti) obtained this authorization following thorough evaluation by CBS. This grants SHM and ahti researchers access to the secure Remote Access (RA) environment of CBS. Within the RA environment, SHM uses a project space configured by ahti that includes relevant CBS data.

Additionally, SHM and ahti researchers have signed a CBS confidentiality agreement and passed a test to obtain a token for accessing the project space. Using two-factor authentication, SHM researchers can link SHM data to the desired CBS data within the project environment based on date of birth, gender, and the first four digits of the postal code. The combined SHM/CBS datasets used for SHM research are pseudonymized and, where possible, anonymized, ensuring they cannot directly identify individuals. All communication between researchers and the RA environment is secured with HTTPS and VPN.

Once CBS approves the research, findings are published. After the research is completed, the SHM/CBS datasets are deleted and do not become part of the main CBS database.​​​​​​​