Psychometric Data Linking Across HIV and Substance Use Cohorts

Abstract

Psychometric data linking of psychological and behavioral questionnaires can facilitate the harmonization of data across HIV and substance use cohorts. Using data from the Collaborating Consortium of Cohorts Producing NIDA Opportunities (C3PNO), we demonstrate how to capitalize on previous linking work with a common linked depression metric across multiple questionnaires. Cohorts were young men who have sex with men (MSM), substance-using MSM, HIV/HCV cocaine users, and HIV-positive patients. We tested for differential item functioning (DIF) by comparing C3PNO cohort data with general population data. We also fit a mixed-effects model for depression, entering HIV-status and recent opioid/heroin use as fixed effects and cohort as a random intercept. Our results suggest a minimal level of DIF between the C3PNO cohorts and general population samples. After linking, descriptive statistics show a wide range of depression score means across cohorts. Our model confirmed an expected positive relationship between substance use and depression, though contrary to expectations, no significant association with HIV status. The study reveals the likely role of cohort differences, associated patient characteristics, study designs, and administration settings.

Keywords: Depression; HIV; Harmonization; Linking; MSM; Substance use.

Figure 1.

Item characteristic curves for 4 items with non-trivial DIF compared to a general population sample (total pseudo R² > 0.016). The top two panels represent two CESD items used in the MASH cohort; the bottom two panels show two PROMIS items administered in the HYM cohort. Except for “I could not get ‘going,” these curves show that the C3PNO cohort participants were more likely to endorse these items relative to the general population samples, given participants’ overall level of depression. For “I could not get ‘going,’” this was reversed for low and mild levels of depression.

Figure 2.

Box and whisker plots showing PROMIS Depression T-score for the five C3PNO cohorts. For T-scores, a value of 50 represents the mean of the US general population (SD = 10). Higher scores indicate a greater degree depression.