Mapping measures to the LifeCourse standard terminology

The LifeCourse website provides a bird’s eye view of what data have been collected across our cohorts. Measures used within a study wave are described using a set of terms to capture the constructs assessed, which are then broadly summarised into a smaller number of domains. Standardising how we describe and organise data captured across LifeCourse cohorts will allow us to achieve a more streamlined, consistent, and intuitive format for browsing and searching of cohort data elements. LifeCourse made a first significant step towards this by standardising the terms used to describe and organise the data collected across the LifeCourse cohorts. The next step required is to allocate these standardised terms to measures themselves. Rather than assigning these anew each time a measure is encountered, we aim to develop a terms-to-measures map with pre-defined term/s assigned for each measure, which will then auto populate to the website. Our previous approach when assigning LifeCourse terms to measures was ad hoc and often inconsistent. The process outlined in this report details a more methodical approach to assigning measures to the LifeCourse standard terminology, which is replicable and will lead to more consistent descriptions of the measures used across the LifeCourse cohorts.