Co-RESPOND: a federated network of cohorts on mental health and adversity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Challenges, solutions and recommendations for retrospective data harmonization

<b>Background:</b> The SARS-Cov-2 pandemic was associated with a substantial rise in trauma and stressor exposure. The Co-RESPOND consortium (part of the EU horizon 2020-funded RESPOND project) has been initiated to study the impact on mental health, using longitudinal data of separate international cohorts.<b>Aims:</b> The Co-RESPOND initiative aims to retrospectively harmonize mental health and resilience data of ongoing longitudinal cohort studies at the individual participant level; to create an interoperable network of cohorts within a secure environment; to manage these data along with harmonization products (e.g. transformation procedures and variable dictionaries) according to the FAIR principles; and to keep this network live in order to add new data waves or to be joined by new cohorts.<b>Methods:</b> Data were harmonized retrospectively according to the Maelstrom guidance. A federated data network (FDN) was created using the OBiBa software suite.<b>Results:</b> To date, Co-RESPOND consists of nine European cohorts and one global cohort, including 50,885 individual participants. This paper presents Co-RESPOND as a case study for retrospective harmonization of decentralized data where teams collected and transformed data without prior coordination, facing methodological as well as regulatory challenges. The process of this project is outlined in detail, so it could be applied by other researchers for future projects. Its outcomes and the resulting data harmonization products are presented.<b>Conclusions and outlook:</b> The harmonized data are now ready to be shared with external partners for analyses, and Co-RESPOND is open for more partners to join. Lessons learned throughout the project will be reported, and established classification standards will be recommended for use to generate data sets that are available for joint analyses from the start.<b>Trial registration:</b> ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04556565.

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Journal
European Journal of Psychotraumatology
Published
2025-08-12
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/20008066.2025.2517920
Primary Topic
Health, Environment, Cognitive Aging
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Co-RESPOND: a federated network of cohorts on mental health and adversity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Challenges, solutions and recommendations for retrospective data harmonization

Irwin Hecker, Claudia Conflitti, Marit Sijbrandij, Jutta Stoffers‐Winterling et al.
European Journal of Psychotraumatology
Health, Environment, Cognitive Aging
article

Co-RESPOND: a federated network of cohorts on mental health and adversity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Challenges, solutions and recommendations for retrospective data harmonization

Irwin Hecker, Claudia Conflitti, Marit Sijbrandij, Jutta Stoffers‐Winterling, Maria Melchior, Vincent Lorant, Pierre Smith, Anna Monistrol-Mula, Papoula Petri‐Romão, Roberto Mediavilla, Diana Czepiel, Els van der Ven, Antonio Lora, Matteo Monzio Compagnoni, José Luís Ayuso‐Mateos, Raffaël Kalisch, Anke B. Witteveen, Giulia Caggiu, Katalin Gémes, Josep Maria Haro Abad, Klaus Lieb, Ellenor Mittendorder-Rutz, Charlotte Doerschner, Jocelyne Jurgeit, Philipp Gödde
article en

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> The SARS-Cov-2 pandemic was associated with a substantial rise in trauma and stressor exposure. The Co-RESPOND consortium (part of the EU horizon 2020-funded RESPOND project) has been initiated to study the impact on mental health, using longitudinal data of separate international cohorts.<b>Aims:</b> The Co-RESPOND initiative aims to retrospectively harmonize mental health and resilience data of ongoing longitudinal cohort studies at the individual participant level; to create an interoperable network of cohorts within a secure environment; to manage these data along with harmonization products (e.g. transformation procedures and variable dictionaries) according to the FAIR principles; and to keep this network live in order to add new data waves or to be joined by new cohorts.<b>Methods:</b> Data were harmonized retrospectively according to the Maelstrom guidance. A federated data network (FDN) was created using the OBiBa software suite.<b>Results:</b> To date, Co-RESPOND consists of nine European cohorts and one global cohort, including 50,885 individual participants. This paper presents Co-RESPOND as a case study for retrospective harmonization of decentralized data where teams collected and transformed data without prior coordination, facing methodological as well as regulatory challenges. The process of this project is outlined in detail, so it could be applied by other researchers for future projects. Its outcomes and the resulting data harmonization products are presented.<b>Conclusions and outlook:</b> The harmonized data are now ready to be shared with external partners for analyses, and Co-RESPOND is open for more partners to join. Lessons learned throughout the project will be reported, and established classification standards will be recommended for use to generate data sets that are available for joint analyses from the start.<b>Trial registration:</b> ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04556565.

European Journal of PsychotraumatologyVol. 16(1)
Inserm (FR), Local Government Association (GB), Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (DE), Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ES), Karolinska Institutet (SE), Sorbonne Université (FR), Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental (ES), Leibniz Institute for Resilience Research (DE), University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (DE), Regional Health (US), Sant Joan de Déu Research Foundation (ES), Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu (ES), Hospital Universitario de La Princesa (ES), Institut Pierre Louis d‘Épidémiologie et de Santé Publique (FR), Sciensano (Belgium) (BE), Laboratoire Médiations (FR), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (ES), University of Milano-Bicocca (IT), University of Amsterdam (NL), UCLouvain (BE)
European Commission
Openalex Percentile: Top 73%
Health, Environment, Cognitive Aging
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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