Data Archiving and Dissemination for Comparative Population Science

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PROJECT SUMMARY The creation of large, scientific studies of human behavior, social experience, and health in the general population form the cornerstone of data creation investments of the past five decades. Because the data from these studies are essential for the construction and evaluation of public policies and programs to improve the health and wellbeing of the population, NICHD places a high scientific priority on dissemination activities and tools that significantly expand the scientific use of such data. A key limitation of these dissemination efforts, thus far, is a relative dearth of data from non-U.S. populations. Dissemination of rigorous non-U.S. population data resources are urgently needed to quickly and easily test the breadth of external validity of key social, behavioral, and public health findings. We leverage NICHD’s long-term investment in the Chitwan Valley Family Study (CVFS) in Nepal to achieve this high-priority objective. The CVFS is an excellent comparative data resource, featuring a 25-year panel study from Nepal with many important features. First, the CVFS was designed to replicate features from the best longitudinal studies, such as the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and the British Household Panel Survey. Second, it was designed to measure change over time in the community level, as opposed to the individual and household levels alone. Third, the CVFS measures environmental change over time. Fourth, the CVFS follows all migrants (both individuals and households), no matter where they move, and periodically refreshes the sample with in-migrants. Finally, the CVFS has newly collected saliva-based DNA samples from all family members, blood-based anemia screening for all children, and COVID-19 disruption data on all households. Though CVFS content originally focused on family and fertility, it now includes measures from domains such as child and adolescent health. The CVFS is thus an unparalleled resource for studying NICHD priorities. We will transform access to this special resource with changes focused on use of the CVFS data, measures specially designed to facilitate comparisons, construction of new data files to speed data linking and data analysis, construction of new learning tools, and new web-based analysis tools. The activities are specifically designed to improve the transparency of comparability between CVFS and data from other settings to assist scientists making these comparisons. We will also improve data quality and user experience so the complexity of these multilevel, 25-year, multi-topic data is not an obstacle to data use. Unmatched in longevity, breadth, and its multilevel (individual, household, community) structure, the CVFS is an ideal resource for international comparative research and model testing that advances the scientific understanding of many high-priority social, behavioral, and health science questions.