Selecting Participants Using the Cohort Builder

  • Updated

The Cohort Builder is a point-and-click tool available to you in the All of Us Researcher Workbench for selecting participants to include in your research project.

With the Cohort Builder, you can include and/or exclude the different types of participants you plan to study in your research project. Always start with the participants you want (your inclusion criteria) to have in your research project. To learn more, see our "Introduction to the Cohort Builder and Dataset Builder" video. 

To create a new cohort and add your first inclusion criteria

  1. Click “white plus sign on top of a blue circle” to the right of “Cohorts.”

    After you write your workspace description, the workspace’s data tab will appear. The Cohort Builder is displayed on the left inside of the screen in a white card with the title Cohorts. A cohort is a group of participants based on specific criteria. Think of your cohort as a subsection of all of the All of Us participants. The white plus sign on top of a blue circle is to the right of the “Cohorts” title. After you click the white plus sign on top of a blue circle, the Build Cohort Criteria page appears with include participants, group 1, and add criteria.

  2. Click “Add Criteria” for a drop-down menu of program data, domains, and concepts to select from for your inclusion criteria.

    After clicking add criteria button, a dropdown appears. You can search or browse through the program data, domains, and concepts available in the Researcher Workbench. This includes demographics, surveys, physical measurements, conditions, procedures, etc.

  3. Search or browse the program data, domains, and concepts.



  4. Select a program data, domain, or concept that you want to add as inclusion criteria for your cohort.

    To select the program data, domains, and concepts, click on the text of interest. Depending on the data, domain, or concept you select, a screen will appear related to that specific data, domain, or concept. For example, clicking on physical measurements will bring up a screen that includes additional selections related to blood pressure, heart rate, height, weight, and BMI.

  5. Define the inclusion criterion based on your research project as necessary. Some data types allow you to apply modifiers. For steps to add optional modifiers, read “To apply optional modifiers to your criteria.”

  6. Click “Finish & Review.”

    The Finish & review button is at the bottom right of the screen and is grayed out until you finish and select your first inclusion criteria. The button will turn dark blue. After you click the Finish & review button, a pop up appears on the right hand side. The pop up provides you a summary of the criteria you selected during the prior steps. You can remove the criteria by selecting the red circle and x to the left of the criteria listed.

  7. Click “Save Criteria.”

    After you click save criteria, the screen will return to the Build Cohort Criteria page. Next you will add more inclusion criteria if relevant to your project.

To add more inclusion criteria

  1. Determine if you want “AND” criteria or “OR” criteria.
    • Use “AND” criteria when you want participants to meet both criteria, e.g., a participant answered The Basics survey AND shared their electronic health record (EHR) data.
    • Use “OR” criteria when you want participants to meet one of the criteria, e.g., a participant answered The Basics survey OR shared their electronic health record (EHR) data.
  2. For “AND” criteria, click “Add Criteria” directly below the gray “AND” circle for a drop-down menu of program data, domains, and concepts to select from for your inclusion criteria.

    On the Build Cohort Criteria page, your inclusion criteria appears under the Include Participants section on the left in a group # section. The gray AND sits below in between two group # sections. The AND means that participants meet the criteria listed in both groups. The Add criteria button sits directly under group # header. After clicking the add criteria button, a drop down appears that allows you to search or browse through the program data, domains, and concepts available in the Researcher Workbench. This includes demographics, surveys, physical measurements, conditions, procedures, etc.

    For “OR” criteria, click “Add Criteria” below the gray “OR” text for a drop-down menu of program data, domains, and concepts to select from for your inclusion criteria.

    On the Build Cohort Criteria page, your inclusion criteria appears under the Include Participants section on the left in a group # section. The gray OR sits between the criteria in your group # section and an add criteria button. The OR means that participants meet the criteria above the OR and the criteria you plan to add below the OR. After clicking the add criteria button, a drop down appears that allows you to search or browse through the program data, domains, and concepts available in the Researcher Workbench. This includes demographics, surveys, physical measurements, conditions, procedures, etc.

  3. Search or browse the program data, domains, and concepts.
  4. Select a program data, domain, or concept that you want to add as inclusion criteria for your cohort.
  5. Define the inclusion criterion based on your research project as necessary. Some data types allow you to apply modifiers. For steps to add optional modifiers, read “To apply optional modifiers to your criteria.”
    Click “Finish & Review.”
  6. Click “Save Criteria.”
  7. Follow steps 1-7 for as many inclusion criteria as needed for your research project.

To add exclusion criteria

  1. Under the “And Exclude Participants” section, click “Add Criteria” for a drop-down menu of program data, domains, and concepts to select from for your exclusion criteria.

    The And Exclude Participants section is located to the right of the Include Participants section. Under And Exclude Participants is a group number and an add criteria button. After clicking add criteria button, a dropdown appears. You can search or browse through the program data, domains, and concepts available in the Researcher Workbench. This includes demographics, surveys, physical measurements, conditions, procedures, etc.

  2. Search or browse the program data, domains, and concepts.



  3. Select a program data, domain, or concept that you want to add as exclusion criteria for your cohort.

    To select the program data, domains, and concepts, click on the text of interest. Depending on the data, domain, or concept you select, a screen will appear related to that specific data, domain, or concept. For example, clicking on physical measurements will bring up a screen that includes additional selections related to blood pressure, heart rate, height, weight, and BMI.

  4. Define the exclusion criterion based on your research project as necessary. Some data types allow you to apply modifiers. For steps to add optional modifiers, read “To apply optional modifiers to your criteria.”

  5. Click “Finish & Review.”

    The Finish & review button is at the bottom right of the screen and is grayed out until you finish and select your exclusion criteria. The button will turn dark blue. After you click the Finish & review button, a pop up appears on the right hand side. The pop up provides you a summary of the criteria you selected during the prior steps. You can remove the criteria by selecting the red circle and x to the left of the criteria listed.

  6. Click “Save Criteria.”After you click save criteria, the screen will return to the Build Cohort Criteria page. Next you will add more exclusion criteria if relevant to your project.


To add more exclusion criteria

  1. Determine if you want “AND” criteria or “OR” criteria.
    • Use “AND” criteria when you want participants to meet both criteria, e.g., a participant answered The Basics survey AND shared their electronic health record (EHR) data.
    • Use “OR” criteria when you want participants to meet one of the criteria, e.g., a participant answered The Basics survey OR shared their electronic health record (EHR) data.
  2. For “AND” criteria, click “Add Criteria” directly below the gray “AND” circle for a drop-down menu of program data, domains, and concepts to select from for your exclusion criteria.

    On the Build Cohort Criteria page, your exclusion criteria appears under the And Exclude Participants section on the right in a group # section. The gray AND sits below in between two group # sections. The AND means that participants meet the criteria listed in both groups. The Add criteria button sits directly under group # header. After clicking the add criteria button, a drop down appears that allows you to search or browse through the program data, domains, and concepts available in the Researcher Workbench. This includes demographics, surveys, physical measurements, conditions, procedures, etc.

    For “OR” criteria, click “Add Criteria” below the gray “OR” text for a drop-down menu of program data, domains, and concepts to select from for your exclusion criteria.

    On the Build Cohort Criteria page, your inclusion criteria appears under the Include Participants section on the left in a group # section. The gray OR sits between the criteria in your group # section and an add criteria button. The OR means that participants meet the criteria above the OR and the criteria you plan to add below the OR. After clicking the add criteria button, a drop down appears that allows you to search or browse through the program data, domains, and concepts available in the Researcher Workbench. This includes demographics, surveys, physical measurements, conditions, procedures, etc.

  3. Search or browse the program data, domains, and concepts.
  4. Select a program data, domain, or concept that you want to add as exclusion criteria for your cohort.
  5. Define the exclusion criterion based on your research project as necessary. Some data types allow you to apply modifiers. For steps to add optional modifiers, read “To apply optional modifiers to your criteria.”
  6. Click “Finish & Review.”
  7. Click “Save Criteria.”
  8. Follow steps 1-7 for as many exclusion criteria as needed for your research project.

To apply optional modifiers to your criteria

  1. Once a criteria is added to your shopping cart, you may have the option to “Apply optional Modifiers” to the selected cohort criteria. Modifiers are optional and vary based on the type of data.

    When you click finish & review on a criteria, you may have the ability to apply modifiers to that specific criteria. If the criteria has the ability to be modified, a button will appear on the pop up on the right that shows you all the criteria you have added to your cohort.

  2. Click “Apply Modifiers.”

    The apply modifiers button is white with a light blue outline and sits directly above the Save criteria button. After clicking apply modifiers, a screen with adjustable parameters will appear depending on the criteria you selected.

  3. Select your parameters and click “Apply Modifiers.”

    The apply modifier button is a blue button below the editable parameters and on the right of the pop up window.

To delete criteria from your cohort

  1. Locate the criteria you want to delete from your cohort.

    Your criteria area listed under group # sections under the Include Participants section on the left or the And Exclude Participants section to the right of the Include Participants section.

  2. Click “three light gray dots stacked in a vertical line” to the left of the criteria you want to delete.

    When you click the vertical ellipsis, a drop down will appear with Edit criteria name, Edit criteria, suppress criteria from total count, delete criteria, and add criteria to concept set.

  3. Click “Delete criteria.”

    Delete criteria is the fourth option in the drop down.

To preview your cohort counts

On the right panel, you can see a running total, or “Total Count” of participants that will be included in your research project’s cohort based on your inclusion and exclusion criteria.

  1. Click “Refresh” after adding all your inclusion and exclusion criteria to update the display on the right panel.

    The refresh button is on the top right of the Total Counts section panel on the right of your Builder Cohort Criteria screen. In the Total Counts panel, you can see your cohort by race and race and age at CDR. To the right of Race and Age at CDR, there are three, gray uneven bars.

  2. Click “Three gray uneven bars” to see results by percentage rather than count.

To save your cohort

After adding your inclusion and exclusion criteria and previewing your cohort counts, you can save your cohort.

  1. Click “Create Cohort.”

    The create cohort button is in the top right corner of the Build Cohort Criteria screen. The button is dark blue with white text. After you click create cohort, a pop up appears to with save cohort as the title and two text field boxes for the cohort name and description.

  2. Name your cohort and add a description for your cohort.

    In the bottom left of the pop up, there is a grayed out Save button. To the left of the grayed out save button is hyperlinked cancel text. If you select cancel, the Build cohort criteria page will return. After you name and add a description for your cohort, the save button will turn dark blue.

  3. Click “Save."

    After you click save, the cohort saved successfully screen appears.

  4. Next, you can choose to create another cohort, create a cohort review set, or create a dataset.

    On the Cohort saved successfully screen, you have three options for what to do next. You can choose to create another cohort. To create another cohort, you would click the create another cohort button at the bottom of the left-hand card. You can choose to create a review set which is an optional step. To create a review set, you would click the create review set button at the bottom of the center card. You can choose to create a dataset. To create a dataset, you would click the create a dataset button at the bottom of the right-hand card.

Looking for more information on the Cohort Builder? Check out our YouTube Channel for a video about using the Cohort Builder.

After selecting your participants with the Cohort Builder, you can create another cohort, create a cohort review set (optional), or create a dataset.

Next articles

Reviewing participants with the cohort review

Learn how to review a segment of the cohort you created with the Cohort Builder

Building a dataset with the Dataset Builder

Select your values of interest related to your defined cohort with the Dataset Builder

Was this article helpful?

9 out of 11 found this helpful

Have more questions? Submit a request

Comments

0 comments

Article is closed for comments.