Geri Donenberg, PhD, Kate Merrill, PhD and colleagues detail a rigorous, 2-year process to harmonize measures across the Prevention And Treatment through a Comprehensive Care Continuum for HIV-affected Adolescents in Resource Constrained Settings (PATC3H) consortium, consisting of eight federally-funded studies. They created a repository of measured constructs from each study, classified and selected constructs for harmonization, and identified survey instruments. Measures were harmonized for implementation science, HIV prevention and care, demographics and sexual behavior, mental health and substance use, and economic assessment. Items were harmonized for staff/administrators and study participants to measure reach, adoption, implementation, maintenance, feasibility, acceptability, appropriateness, and fidelity. The process can inform future data harmonization efforts, critical to strengthening the replication and generalizability of findings while facilitating collaborative research-especially in resource-limited settings.
Donenberg GR, Merrill KG, Obiezu-Umeh C, Nwaozuru U, Blachman-Demner D, Subramanian S, Fournier A, Iwelunmor J. Harmonizing Implementation and Outcome Data Across HIV Prevention and Care Studies in Resource-Constrained Settings. Glob Implement Res Appl. 2022 Apr 7:1-12. doi: 10.1007/s43477-022-00042-7. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35411334; PMCID: PMC8987520.