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Equivalence Class Definition

Meaning

An Equivalence Class Definition refers to a specific set of records within a de-identified dataset that share the exact same combination of values for a specific group of quasi-identifiers, such as a patient’s age range, gender, and generalized thyroid function status. In the context of sensitive hormonal health data, the minimum size of this class, often denoted by the variable ‘k’, is critically important for privacy protection. A larger class size makes it significantly more difficult for an adversary to uniquely pinpoint an individual’s sensitive health outcome, like a specific low testosterone diagnosis, from within the cohort.