Application of data pooling to longitudinal studies of early post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) : the International Consortium to Predict PTSD (ICPP) project
Date
2018
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Taylor & Francis Open
Abstract
Background: Understanding the development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is
a precondition for efficient risk assessment and prevention planning. Studies to date
have been site and sample specific. Towards developing generalizable models of PTSD
development and prediction, the International Consortium to Predict PTSD (ICPP) compiled
data from 13 longitudinal, acute-care based PTSD studies performed in six different
countries.
Objective: The objectives of this study were to describe the ICPP’s approach to data pooling
and harmonization, and present cross-study descriptive results informing the longitudinal
course of PTSD after acute trauma.
Methods: Item-level data from 13 longitudinal studies of adult civilian trauma survivors
were collected. Constructs (e.g. PTSD, depression), measures (questions or scales), and time
variables (days from trauma) were identified and harmonized, and those with inconsistent
coding (e.g. education, lifetime trauma exposure) were recoded. Administered in 11 studies,
the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) emerged as the main measure of PTSD
diagnosis and severity.
Results: The pooled data set included 6254 subjects (39.9% female). Studies’ average
retention rate was 87.0% (range 49.1–93.5%). Participants’ baseline assessments took
place within 2 months of trauma exposure. Follow-up durations ranged from 188 to
1110 days. Reflecting studies’ inclusion criteria, the prevalence of baseline PTSD differed
significantly between studies (range 3.1–61.6%), and similar differences were observed in
subsequent assessments (4.3–38.2% and 3.8–27.0% for second and third assessments,
respectively).
Conclusion: Pooling data from independently collected studies requires careful curation
of individual data sets for extracting and optimizing informative commonalities.
However, it is an important step towards developing robust and generalizable prediction
models for PTSD and can exceed findings of single studies. The large differences in
prevalence of PTSD longitudinally cautions against using any individual study to infer
trauma outcome. The multiplicity of instruments used in individual studies emphasizes
the need for common data elements in future studies.
Description
CITATION: Qi, W., et al. 2018. Application of data pooling to longitudinal studies of early post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) : the International Consortium to Predict PTSD (ICPP) project. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 9(1):1476442, doi:10.1080/20008198.2018.1476442.
The original publication is available at https://www.tandfonline.com
The original publication is available at https://www.tandfonline.com
Keywords
Post-traumatic stress disorder -- Research, Post-traumatic stress disorder -- Risk assessment
Citation
Qi, W., et al. 2018. Application of data pooling to longitudinal studies of early post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) : the International Consortium to Predict PTSD (ICPP) project. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 9(1):1476442, doi:10.1080/20008198.2018.1476442