1  Psychosocial

Authors

Briha Ansari

Patrick Sadil

Psychosocial data help researchers understand the complex relationship between psychological, emotional, behavioral, and social aspects of life and their influence on health outcomes. The Acute to Chronic Pain Signatures Study (A2CPS) includes several psychosocial assessments and associated Helping End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Common Data Elements (Wandner et al., 2022) to gain a comprehensive understanding of chronic pain. These assessments include:

Wandner, L. D., Domenichiello, A. F., Beierlein, J., Pogorzala, L., Aquino, G., Siddons, A., Porter, L., Atkinson, J., & Institute, N. P. C. (2022). NIH’s helping to end addiction long-termSM initiative (NIH HEAL initiative) clinical pain management common data element program. The Journal of Pain, 23(3), 370–378. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2021.08.005
Slepian, P. M., Ankawi, B., Himawan, L. K., & France, C. R. (2016). Development and initial validation of the pain resilience scale. The Journal of Pain, 17(4), 462–472. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2015.12.010
McWilliams, L., Kowal, J., & Wilson, K. (2015). Development and evaluation of short forms of the pain catastrophizing scale and the pain self-efficacy questionnaire. European Journal of Pain, 19(9), 1342–1349. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejp.665
Waddell, G., Newton, M., Henderson, I., Somerville, D., & Main, C. J. (1993). A Fear-Avoidance Beliefs Questionnaire (FABQ) and the role of fear-avoidance beliefs in chronic low back pain and disability. Pain, 52(2), 157–168. https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3959(93)90127-b
Schrepf, A., Williams, D. A., Gallop, R., Naliboff, B. D., Basu, N., Kaplan, C., Harper, D. E., Landis, J. R., Clemens, J. Q., Strachan, E., et al. (2018). Sensory sensitivity and symptom severity represent unique dimensions of chronic pain: A MAPP research network study. Pain, 159(10), 2002–2011. https://doi.org/10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001299
Kroenke, K., Strine, T. W., Spitzer, R. L., Williams, J. B., Berry, J. T., & Mokdad, A. H. (2009). The PHQ-8 as a measure of current depression in the general population. Journal of Affective Disorders, 114(1-3), 163–173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2008.06.026
Spitzer, R. L., Kroenke, K., Williams, J. B. W., & Löwe, B. (2006). A Brief Measure for Assessing Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Archives of Internal Medicine, 166(10), 1092. https://doi.org/10.1001/archinte.166.10.1092
Hahn, E. A., DeVellis, R. F., Bode, R. K., Garcia, S. F., Castel, L. D., Eisen, S. V., Bosworth, H. B., Heinemann, A. W., Rothrock, N., Cella, D., et al. (2010). Measuring social health in the patient-reported outcomes measurement information system (PROMIS): Item bank development and testing. Quality of Life Research, 19(7), 1035–1044. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-010-9654-0
Kratz, A. L., Schilling, S., Goesling, J., & Williams, D. A. (2016). The PROMIS FatigueFM profile: A self-report measure of fatigue for use in fibromyalgia. Quality of Life Research, 25(7), 1803–1813. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-016-1230-9
Yu, L., Buysse, D. J., Germain, A., Moul, D. E., Stover, A., Dodds, N. E., Johnston, K. L., & Pilkonis, P. A. (2012). Development of short forms from the PROMIS™ sleep disturbance and sleep-related impairment item banks. Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 10(1), 6–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/15402002.2012.636266
Buysse, D. J., Reynolds, C. F., Monk, T. H., Berman, S. R., & Kupfer, D. J. (1989). The Pittsburgh sleep quality index: A new instrument for psychiatric practice and research. Psychiatry Research, 28(2), 193–213. https://doi.org/10.1016/0165-1781(89)90047-4
Sangha, O., Stucki, G., Liang, M. H., Fossel, A. H., & Katz, J. N. (2003). The self-administered comorbidity questionnaire: A new method to assess comorbidity for clinical and health services research. Arthritis Care & Research: Official Journal of the American College of Rheumatology, 49(2), 156–163. https://doi.org/10.1002/art.10993
Felitti, V. J., Anda, R. F., Nordenberg, D., Williamson, D. F., Spitz, A. M., Edwards, V., & Marks, J. S. (1998). Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults: The adverse childhood experiences (ACE) study. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 14(4), 245–258. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0749-3797(98)00017-8
Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2017). Short and extra-short forms of the Big Five Inventory2: The BFI-2-S and BFI-2-XS. Journal of Research in Personality, 68, 69–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2017.02.004

1.1 Starting Project

1.1.1 Locate Data

Where are the relevant files?

$ /corral-secure/projects/A2CPS/products/consortium-data/pre-surgery-release-2-0-0/psychosocial/reformatted

1.1.2 Example workflow with GAD-7 (Anxiety) and PHQ-9 (Depression)

Load libraries (Uncomment to install libraries if not already installed)

#install.packages(c("tidyverse", "ggplot2"))

#load libraries
library(tidyverse)
library(ggplot2)

Load Data: GAD-7 (Anxiety) and PHQ-9 (Depression)

gad <- read_csv("data/reformatted_gad.csv")
phq <- read_csv("data/reformatted_phq.csv")

Join GAD-7 (Anxiety) and PHQ-9 (Depression) datasets using unique identifiers i.e. record_id and guid, and other common data elements, we will call this combined dataset "gad_phq". Left join keeps all rows from the left table and matches data from the right. Right join keeps all rows from the right table and matches data from the left. Inner join keeps rows that exist in both tables. Full join keeps all rows from both tables, leaving missing values where there’s no match. The type of join depends on the researchers’ goals. Here we will use an inner join for exploratory data analysis purposes. In cases where the datasets have more than two columns in common the following code is helpful since it uses the common column names between the two datasets.

gad_phq <- inner_join(gad, phq, by = intersect(names(gad), names(phq)))

View columns available after merging the two datasets

head(gad_phq)
record_id guid redcap_event_name redcap_data_access_group cohort gad2feelnervscl gad2notstopwryscl gad7wrytoomchscl gad7troubrelxscl gad7rstlessscl gad7easyannoyedscl gad7feelafrdscl gad7totscore gad7difficulttowork generalized_anxiety_disorder_7_item_gad7_scale_sco_complete gad_diff imputed_gad_score phqlitintrstscore phqdeprssnscore phqsleepimpairscore phqtirdlittleenrgyscore phqabnrmldietscore phqflngfailrscore phqconcntrtnimprmntscore phqmovmntspchimprmntscore phqtotalscore patient_health_questionnaire_depression_scale_phq_complete phq_diff imputed_phq_score
10001 90F8FC45-5D53-0DE4-6853-284607A8C4E6 baseline_visit_arm_1 rush_university_me TKA 1 1 1 2 1 2 0 8 1 2 1 8 1 1 2 2 0 2 2 0 10 2 1 10
10003 3D64236C-04A5-6B6B-D67B-B8DCE42DCE24 baseline_visit_arm_1 rush_university_me TKA 2 1 1 1 0 0 1 6 1 2 1 6 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 6 2 1 6
10004 3D18263F-58E6-0421-355F-0B40D4B49772 baseline_visit_arm_1 rush_university_me TKA 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 0
10005 FB37DE84-DCC7-5F80-0044-EFA96200E30D baseline_visit_arm_1 rush_university_me TKA 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 1 2 1 2 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 1 2
10006 BE03636F-BBB4-424E-875D-1D230C76EC63 baseline_visit_arm_1 rush_university_me TKA 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 2 2 1 2
10007 DBFF8148-0AA2-EBC1-26E3-4F3E2B0E59C9 baseline_visit_arm_1 rush_university_me TKA 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 5 0 2 1 5 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 2 2 1 2

Check data types and ensure that character variables are not stored as numeric, and that numeric variables are stored with the correct numeric type—not as character or factor.

glimpse(gad_phq)
Rows: 1,362
Columns: 29
$ record_id                                                   <dbl> 10001, 100…
$ guid                                                        <chr> "90F8FC45-…
$ redcap_event_name                                           <chr> "baseline_…
$ redcap_data_access_group                                    <chr> "rush_univ…
$ cohort                                                      <chr> "TKA", "TK…
$ gad2feelnervscl                                             <dbl> 1, 2, 0, 1…
$ gad2notstopwryscl                                           <dbl> 1, 1, 0, 0…
$ gad7wrytoomchscl                                            <dbl> 1, 1, 0, 0…
$ gad7troubrelxscl                                            <dbl> 2, 1, 0, 1…
$ gad7rstlessscl                                              <dbl> 1, 0, 0, 0…
$ gad7easyannoyedscl                                          <dbl> 2, 0, 0, 0…
$ gad7feelafrdscl                                             <dbl> 0, 1, 0, 0…
$ gad7totscore                                                <dbl> 8, 6, 0, 2…
$ gad7difficulttowork                                         <dbl> 1, 1, 0, 1…
$ generalized_anxiety_disorder_7_item_gad7_scale_sco_complete <dbl> 2, 2, 2, 2…
$ gad_diff                                                    <dbl> 1, 1, 1, 1…
$ imputed_gad_score                                           <dbl> 8, 6, 0, 2…
$ phqlitintrstscore                                           <dbl> 1, 1, 0, 0…
$ phqdeprssnscore                                             <dbl> 1, 1, 0, 1…
$ phqsleepimpairscore                                         <dbl> 2, 1, 0, 1…
$ phqtirdlittleenrgyscore                                     <dbl> 2, 1, 0, 0…
$ phqabnrmldietscore                                          <dbl> 0, 0, 0, 0…
$ phqflngfailrscore                                           <dbl> 2, 1, 0, 0…
$ phqconcntrtnimprmntscore                                    <dbl> 2, 1, 0, 0…
$ phqmovmntspchimprmntscore                                   <dbl> 0, 0, 0, 0…
$ phqtotalscore                                               <dbl> 10, 6, 0, …
$ patient_health_questionnaire_depression_scale_phq_complete  <dbl> 2, 2, 2, 2…
$ phq_diff                                                    <dbl> 1, 1, 1, 1…
$ imputed_phq_score                                           <dbl> 10, 6, 0, …

1.2 Exploratory data analysis

Anxiety and depression frequently coexist due to shared biological mechanisms and overlapping symptoms. Approximately 50% of patients with depression also meet the criteria for having an anxiety disorder. The co-occurrence of anxiety and depression in an individual increases the risk of suicide, affects social interactions, and results in more hospitalizations (Kircanski et al., 2017). We are interested in looking at the association between Anxiety scores and Depression scores. While looking at the datatypes, spearman correlation would be the measure of choice since we have confirmed using the glimpse() functiona that those variables are stored as ordered and numeric.

Kircanski, K., LeMoult, J., Ordaz, S., & Gotlib, I. H. (2017). Investigating the nature of co-occurring depression and anxiety: Comparing diagnostic and dimensional research approaches. Journal of Affective Disorders, 216, 123–135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2016.08.006

Spearman Correlation:

Since GAD and PHQ scores are ordered but not continuous, spearman correlation here would be a better choice than pearson since it measures monotonic association between two variables by comparing their ranks, we will add the argument use = "complete.obs" to ignore rows with missing values.

cor(gad_phq$imputed_gad_score, gad_phq$imputed_phq_score, use = "complete.obs")
[1] 0.7626977

As expected we see a very strong correlation between anxiety and depression within the A2CPS cohort i.e. 0.76. Let’s visualize these results with a simple boxplot.

# Remove rows with NA in either column
gad_phq_clean <- gad_phq %>%
  filter(!is.na(imputed_gad_score), !is.na(imputed_phq_score))

# Create the plot
ggplot(
  gad_phq_clean,
  aes(
    x = factor(imputed_gad_score),
    y = imputed_phq_score,
    fill = factor(imputed_gad_score)
  )
) +
  geom_boxplot() +
  labs(
    title = "PHQ Score Distribution by GAD Score",
    x = "GAD Score (Imputed)",
    y = "PHQ Score (Imputed)",
    fill = "GAD Score"
  ) +
  theme_minimal()

We see that there is a positive association between Anxiety and Depression scores.

1.3 Considerations While Working on the Project

1.3.1 Methods

Self-reported assessments are collected electronically through a variety of surveys using Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap™) and/or MyDataHelps™ (RKStudio™, CareEvolution, LLC, Ann Arbor, MI) (see below for more details). A2CPS includes the core psychosocial assessments and associated HEAL CDEs for harmonization. Remote assessments have been implemented for both English and Spanish-speaking participants. Of note: two psychosocial items were also collected during brain-imaging sessions, a pain assessement and a mood assessment.

1.3.2 Data Quality

The data were exported from REDCap and may contain errors or missing values. Therefore, to ensure high-quality data, the data were cleaned and reformatted. For details, see Appendix D. There are individual reformatted files as well as a combined file for psychosocial data (look for files ending in TKA and/or Thoracic).

1.3.4 Missing Data

Proceed with caution when merging data across psychosocial data or different modalities. Merging datasets often leads to a reduced sample size due to missing data or incomplete forms. This can lower statistical power and limit the ability to draw reliable conclusions.

1.3.5 Citations

In publications or presentations including data from A2CPS, please include the following statement as attribution:

Data were provided [in part] by the A2CPS Consortium funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Common Fund, which is managed by the Office of the Director (OD)/ Office of Strategic Coordination (OSC). Consortium components and their associated funding sources include Clinical Coordinating Center (U24NS112873), Data Integration and Resource Center (U54DA049110), Omics Data Generation Centers (U54DA049116, U54DA049115, U54DA049113), Multi-site Clinical Center 1 (MCC1) (UM1NS112874), and Multi-site Clinical Center 2 (MCC2) (UM1NS118922).

Note

The following published papers should be cited when referring to A2CPS Protocol and Biomarkers: Sluka et al. (2023) Berardi et al. (2022)

Berardi, G., Frey-Law, L., Sluka, K. A., Bayman, E. O., Coffey, C. S., Ecklund, D., Vance, C. G. T., Dailey, D. L., Burns, J., Buvanendran, A., McCarthy, R. J., Jacobs, J., Zhou, X. J., Wixson, R., Balach, T., Brummett, C. M., Clauw, D., Colquhoun, D., Harte, S. E., … Wandner, L. D. (2022). Multi-site observational study to assess biomarkers for susceptibility or resilience to chronic pain: The acute to chronic pain signatures (A2CPS) study protocol. Frontiers in Medicine, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2022.849214
Sluka, K. A., Wager, T. D., Sutherland, S. P., Labosky, P. A., Balach, T., Bayman, E. O., Berardi, G., Brummett, C. M., Burns, J., Buvanendran, A., et al. (2023). Predicting chronic postsurgical pain: Current evidence and a novel program to develop predictive biomarker signatures. Pain, 164(9), 1912–1926. https://doi.org/10.1097/j.pain.0000000000002938