Center for Mental Health Services Research Dissemination Activities

Introduction The University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) Center for Mental Health Services Research (CMHSR) conducts research to enhance services, improve the quality of life, and promote recovery for people with behavioral health conditions. The Center was founded in 1993 as a Massachusetts Department of Mental Health Research Center of Excellence. Center faculty receive funding from a variety of federal, state and foundation sources. The Center’s focus on community-based research and engagement with providers, consumers and families also carries the message of hope for the many adults, children, adolescents and families living with mental illness. The Mental Health Agency Research Network (MHARN) expands on the dissemination and research functions of CMHSR to reach providers serving DMH clients across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The goals of the MHARN include Dissemination, Engagement and Collaboration as a way to facilitate the translation of research findings into practice and bring together providers with researchers to engage in new research on services provided in the community. Four Research Subject Areas: Child, Youth & Family Mental Health Law, Ethics & Mental Health Multicultural Research Rehabilitation, Recovery & Wellness The Dissemination Series Products for a diverse audience including clinicians/providers, mental health service users and their families, and researchers. Psychiatry Issue Briefs Issue briefs focus on translating research findings into concise, user-friendly information that is accessible to all Research You Can Use A one-page summary of research findings and recommendations specifically developed for busy providers Research in the Works Summarizes current and ongoing research project

The Mental Health Agency Research Network (MHARN): Developing a statewide network for knowledge sharing, technical assistance & collaborative research

The Mental Health Agency Research Network (MHARN) is a developing network for sharing knowledge and research collaboration between the UMMS Dept. of Psychiatry and other academics, DMH personnel, community providers, consumers and family members. Its mission is to close the gap between science and service in mental health services in Massachusetts by improving implementation of evidence based practices to benefit consumers. The MHARN provides a structure and mechanism for the Center for Mental Health Services Research (CMHSR) to better engage with DMH staff and community agencies around the state. As experience and research on science-to-service has demonstrated that dissemination of information about research findings is not sufficient to bring about changes in practice and benefits to consumers, the MHARN will incorporate principles and practices of the emerging science of implementation research

DataSHIELD: taking the analysis to the data, not the data to the analysis

Research in modern biomedicine and social science requires sample sizes so large that they can often only be achieved through a pooled co-analysis of data from several studies. But the pooling of information from individuals in a central database that may be queried by researchers raises important ethico-legal questions and can be controversial. In the UK this has been highlighted by recent debate and controversy relating to the UK's proposed 'care.data' initiative, and these issues reflect important societal and professional concerns about privacy, confidentiality and intellectual property. DataSHIELD provides a novel technological solution that can circumvent some of the most basic challenges in facilitating the access of researchers and other healthcare professionals to individual-level data. Commands are sent from a central analysis computer (AC) to several data computers (DCs) storing the data to be co-analysed. The data sets are analysed simultaneously but in parallel. The separate parallelized analyses are linked by non-disclosive summary statistics and commands transmitted back and forth between the DCs and the AC. This paper describes the technical implementation of DataSHIELD using a modified R statistical environment linked to an Opal database deployed behind the computer firewall of each DC. Analysis is controlled through a standard R environment at the AC. Based on this Opal/R implementation, DataSHIELD is currently used by the Healthy Obese Project and the Environmental Core Project (BioSHaRE-EU) for the federated analysis of 10 data sets across eight European countries, and this illustrates the opportunities and challenges presented by the DataSHIELD approach. DataSHIELD facilitates important research in settings where: (i) a co-analysis of individual-level data from several studies is scientifically necessary but governance restrictions prohibit the release or sharing of some of the required data, and/or render data access unacceptably slow; (ii) a research group (e.g. in a developing nation) is particularly vulnerable to loss of intellectual property-the researchers want to fully share the information held in their data with national and international collaborators, but do not wish to hand over the physical data themselves; and (iii) a data set is to be included in an individual-level co-analysis but the physical size of the data precludes direct transfer to a new site for analysis

Residential Air Pollution and Associations with Wheeze and Shortness of Breath in Adults: A Combined Analysis of Cross-Sectional Data from Two Large European Cohorts.

BACKGROUND: Research examining associations between air pollution exposure and respiratory symptoms in adults has generally been inconclusive. This may be related in part to sample size issues, which also preclude analysis in potentially vulnerable subgroups. OBJECTIVES: We estimated associations between air pollution exposures and the prevalence of wheeze and shortness of breath using harmonized baseline data from two very large European cohorts, Lifelines (2006-2013) and UK Biobank (2006-2010). Our aim was also to determine whether the relationship between air pollution and respiratory symptom prevalence differed between individuals with different characteristics. METHODS: Cross-sectional analyses explored associations between prevalence of self-reported wheeze and shortness of breath and annual mean particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter <2.5μm, 2.5-10μm, and <10μm (PM2.5, PMcoarse, and PM10, respectively) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations at place of residence using logistic regression. Subgroup analyses and tests for interaction were performed for age, sex, smoking status, household income, obesity status, and asthma status. RESULTS: All PM exposures were associated with respiratory symptoms based on single-pollutant models, with the largest associations seen for PM2.5 with prevalence of wheezing {odds ratio (OR)=1.16 per 5μg/m³ [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.11, 1.21]} and shortness of breath [OR=1.61 per 5μg/m³ (95% CI: 1.45, 1.78)]. The association between shortness of breath and a 5-μg/m³ increment in PM2.5 was significantly higher for individuals from lower-[OR=1.73 (95% CI: 1.52, 1.97)] versus higher-income households [OR=1.31 (95% CI: 1.11, 1.55); p-interaction=0.005), whereas the association between PM2.5 and wheeze was limited to lower-income participants [OR=1.30 (95% CI: 1.22, 1.38) vs. OR=1.02; (95% CI: 0.96, 1.08); p-interaction<0.001]. Exposure to NO2 also showed positive associations with wheeze and shortness of breath. CONCLUSION: Exposure to PM and NO2 air pollution was associated with the prevalence of wheeze and shortness of breath in this large study, with stronger associations between PM2.5 and both outcomes among lower- versus higher-income participants. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1353

Ambient air pollution, traffic noise and adult asthma prevalence:A BioSHaRE approach

We investigated the effects of both ambient air pollution and traffic noise on adult asthma prevalence, using harmonised data from three European cohort studies established in 2006-2013 (HUNT3, Lifelines and UK Biobank).Residential exposures to ambient air pollution (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter = 20 years was undertaken using DataSHIELD to pool data for individual-level analysis via a "compute to the data" approach. Multivariate logistic regression models were fitted to assess the effects of each exposure on lifetime and current asthma prevalence.PM10 or NO2 higher by 10 mu g center dot m-3 was associated with 12.8% (95% CI 9.5-16.3%) and 1.9% (95% CI 1.1-2.8%) higher lifetime asthma prevalence, respectively, independent of confounders. Effects were larger in those aged. 50 years, ever-smokers and less educated. Noise exposure was not significantly associated with asthma prevalence.This study suggests that long-term ambient PM10 exposure is associated with asthma prevalence in western European adults. Traffic noise is not associated with asthma prevalence, but its potential to impact on asthma exacerbations needs further investigation.</p