Culturally Adapted CMHDS

The CMHDS was developed through a National Institute for Health and Social Care Research (NIHR)-funded project between 2020 and 2023 to capture mental health data in physical health trials. The link between physical and mental health is well known, however there is limited data to evidence this as physical and mental health data are not routinely collected together. A series of focus groups involving members of the public, experts in mental health data collection and ethics committee members were involved in establishing the CMHDS. This was then successfully implemented in two physical health trials.

In early 2023, we were awarded Greater Manchester Clinical Research Network (CRN) funding to culturally adapt the CMHDS. We engaged 23 participants from minoritised ethnic backgrounds through public focus groups to explore perceptions of the CMHDS and its inclusion of race and ethnicity data. Additionally, we consulted six experts in cultural sensitivity and mental health research to gather insights into best practices. Conclusions from this piece of work identified formatting, wording and language and social and cultural factors were important aspects to adapt to be more culturally sensitive.

The CMHDS is being carried forward in DATAMIND and will store participant data on mental health in the DATAMIND Trusted Research Environment for approved researchers to access. The DATAMIND SRAG were also involved in finalising the Culturally Adapted CMHDS. Their feedback from a group meeting in December 2024 led to the following changes being made:

• Updating the wording of the trauma question so it is clearer for participants.
• Simplifying wording throughout the tool, where possible.
• A second version of the CMHDS being created to incorporate free-text boxes. Research teams using the tool are now able to choose whether they collect a mix of qualitative and quantitative data, or just quantitative.
• Changing the phrasing of 'mental health problems' to 'mental health conditions' throughout.