TY - JOUR
T1 - Identifying and sharing data for secondary data analysis of physical activity, sedentary behaviour and their determinants across the life course in Europe
T2 - general principles and an example from DEDIPAC
AU - Lakerveld, Jeroen
AU - Loyen, Anne
AU - Ling, Fiona Chun Man
AU - De Craemer, Marieke
AU - van der Ploeg, Hidde P
AU - O'Gorman, Donal J
AU - Carlin, Angela
AU - Caprinica, Laura
AU - Kalter, Joeri
AU - Oppert, Jean-Michel
AU - Chastin, Sebastian
AU - Cardon, Greet
AU - Brug, Johannes
AU - MacDonncha, Ciaran
N1 - © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.
PY - 2017/10/22
Y1 - 2017/10/22
N2 - BACKGROUND: The utilisation of available cross-European data for secondary data analyses on physical activity, sedentary behaviours and their underlying determinants may benefit from the wide variation that exists across Europe in terms of these behaviours and their determinants. Such reuse of existing data for further research requires Findable; Accessible; Interoperable; Reusable (FAIR) data management and stewardship. We here describe the inventory and development of a comprehensive European dataset compendium and the process towards cross-European secondary data analyses of pooled data on physical activity, sedentary behaviour and their correlates across the life course.METHODS: A five-step methodology was followed by the European Determinants of Diet and Physical Activity (DEDIPAC) Knowledge Hub, covering the (1) identification of relevant datasets across Europe, (2) development of a compendium including details on the design, study population, measures and level of accessibility of data from each study, (3) definition of key topics and approaches for secondary analyses, (4) process of gaining access to datasets and (5) pooling and harmonisation of the data and the development of a data harmonisation platform.RESULTS: A total of 114 unique datasets were found for inclusion within the DEDIPAC compendium. Of these datasets, 14 were eventually obtained and reused to address 10 exemplar research questions. The DEDIPAC data harmonisation platform proved to be useful for pooling, but in general, harmonisation was often restricted to just a few core (crude) outcome variables and some individual-level sociodemographic correlates of these behaviours.CONCLUSIONS: Obtaining, pooling and harmonising data for secondary data analyses proved to be difficult and sometimes even impossible. Compliance to FAIR data management and stewardship principles currently appears to be limited for research in the field of physical activity and sedentary behaviour. We discuss some of the reasons why this might be the case and present recommendations based on our experience.
AB - BACKGROUND: The utilisation of available cross-European data for secondary data analyses on physical activity, sedentary behaviours and their underlying determinants may benefit from the wide variation that exists across Europe in terms of these behaviours and their determinants. Such reuse of existing data for further research requires Findable; Accessible; Interoperable; Reusable (FAIR) data management and stewardship. We here describe the inventory and development of a comprehensive European dataset compendium and the process towards cross-European secondary data analyses of pooled data on physical activity, sedentary behaviour and their correlates across the life course.METHODS: A five-step methodology was followed by the European Determinants of Diet and Physical Activity (DEDIPAC) Knowledge Hub, covering the (1) identification of relevant datasets across Europe, (2) development of a compendium including details on the design, study population, measures and level of accessibility of data from each study, (3) definition of key topics and approaches for secondary analyses, (4) process of gaining access to datasets and (5) pooling and harmonisation of the data and the development of a data harmonisation platform.RESULTS: A total of 114 unique datasets were found for inclusion within the DEDIPAC compendium. Of these datasets, 14 were eventually obtained and reused to address 10 exemplar research questions. The DEDIPAC data harmonisation platform proved to be useful for pooling, but in general, harmonisation was often restricted to just a few core (crude) outcome variables and some individual-level sociodemographic correlates of these behaviours.CONCLUSIONS: Obtaining, pooling and harmonising data for secondary data analyses proved to be difficult and sometimes even impossible. Compliance to FAIR data management and stewardship principles currently appears to be limited for research in the field of physical activity and sedentary behaviour. We discuss some of the reasons why this might be the case and present recommendations based on our experience.
KW - Datasets as Topic
KW - Europe
KW - Exercise
KW - Health Behavior
KW - Humans
KW - Information Dissemination
KW - Public Health
KW - Sedentary Behavior
U2 - 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-017489
DO - 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-017489
M3 - Article
C2 - 29061620
SN - 2044-6055
VL - 7
JO - BMJ Open
JF - BMJ Open
IS - 10
M1 - e017489
ER -
