RCMAR Analysis Core Conference Minutes
February 17, 2015 8:00 A.M. to 9:00 A.M. (Pacific)
Call in information is 888 921-8686 (3103120536#)
Roll call, availability, and role assignments for next teleconference
Name
Present February 17
Available March 17
Hays, Ron (UCLA)
Yes
Yes
Kapteyn, Arie (USC)
Yes
No
Moore, Mignon (UCLA)
No
Yes
Mungas, Dan (UC Davis)
Yes
Yes
Schwartz, Steve (U Wash/U Colorado)
No
Yes
Stewart, Anita (UCSF)
Yes
Yes
Templin, Tom (WSU/U Mich)
Yes
Yes
Teresi, Jeanne (Columbia U)
Yes
Yes
Wallace, Steve (UCLA Coord Center)
Yes
Yes
Weech-Maldonado, Rob (Deep South)
Yes
Yes
Facilitator
Recorder
Dan Mungas
Arie Kapteyn
Rob Weech-Maldonado
Ron Hays
I. Review and approval of minutes from January 2015 call
The minutes from the January call were approved, pending emailed changes after the call.
They will be forwarded for posting on the password restricted area of the RMCAR web site
(http://www.rcmar.ucla.edu/). Use rcmar, rcmar-II (capitol I’s).
II. Additional/deletions to agenda
None.
III. RCMAR Preconference Workshop – 2015 –Subjective Well-Being Assessment in Minority
Aging Research
We reviewed and discussed the latest workshop agenda draft. We now have confirmations
from Carol Graham and Carol Ryff. Anita suggested replacing the abstract in the beginning by
the longer text at the back of the document. She has done this in the meantime and a new
version of the conference agenda is accompanying these notes.
It had been suggested that Arthur Stone could present a sum-up at the end of the day, but he
declined. We had another discussion about breakout groups (this time combined with lunch),
but it was felt that we should allow participants a decent amount of unstructured time. At the
panel discussion at the end, the day’s speakers will form the panel.
In terms of relevance for RCMAR, we will ask speakers to pay attention to implications for
minority race/ethnicity and older age.
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We discussed the importance of having a paper or set of papers published attributable to the
workshop. Anita suggested the possibility of getting junior researcher involvement in the
written products. Ron expressed high potential with his presentation turning into a paper that
might be led by a graduate student at UCLA.
IV. Update on RCMAR annual conference
The agenda is now available on the web (http://www.rcmar.ucla.edu/am/agenda.php) and includes
workgroup meetings (e.g., analysis core). It appears that so far, Rob, Arie, and Tom will not be
able to attend. At the next call we will discuss what to do during the workgroup meeting during
the morning of April 29. One possible item is to discuss the new website, which should be
available by then.
V. Annotated Reference Lists
It is noted that we list progress and changes in our regular minutes, which makes it difficult to
keep track of developments. Anita attempted to pull relevant parts of earlier minutes into the
annotated reference section. This has been done and is reflected in the attached list of topics
VI. Announcements
None; it is observed that with the close of the discussion of the preconference meeting on
Well-Being, the agenda of the monthly call may become very thin. One suggestion was to pay
more attention to overlap in different well-being measures. On the next call we can discuss if
we want to add new topics to the agenda.
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Post Call Details
2015 RCMAR Measurement and Methods Conference Call Assignments
Recorder
Month
January 20
February 17
March 17
April 15
May 20
June 17
July 15
August 19
September 16
October 21
November 18
December 16
Anita Stewart
Arie Kapteyn
Ron Hays
Facilitator
Arie Kapteyn
Dan Mungas
Rob Weech-Maldonado
Summary of 2015 completed conference call participation
Name
Ron D. Hays
Arie Kapteyn
Mignon Moore
Dan Mungas
Steve Schwartz
Anita Stewart
Tom Templin
Rob Weech-Maldonado
# Recorder
0
1
0
0
0
1
0
0
# Facilitator
0
1
0
1
0
0
0
0
Total count
0
2
0
1
0
1
0
0
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Agenda for Next RCMAR Analysis Core Conference Call
March 17, 2015 11:00 A.M. to 12:00 P.M. (Eastern)
Call in information is 888 921-8686 (3103120536#)
Pin code for moderator: 6769
I. Roll call, availability, and role assignments for next teleconference
II. Review and approval of minutes from last call
III. Additions/deletions to agenda
IV. 2015 Pre-Conference Workshop on Measurement of Well-Being
V. Update on RCMAR annual conference
VI. Annotated reference lists
VII. Discussion on possible future agenda items
VIII. Announcements
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Annotated Reference Lists
This appendix to the agenda has current issues discussed embedded (for now). Lists with “blue”
titles are completed and on the website. Lists in bold are under development.
Methods for Developing, Adapting, and Testing Measures for Minority Populations





Overviews of Measurement Issues (DATE?)
Using Focus Groups in the Development of Structured Surveys (UCSF - Sept 2010)
Using Cognitive Interviews to Develop Structured Surveys (UCSF - June 2010)
IRT & DIF Readings (UCLA - July 2010)
Guidelines for Translating Surveys in Cross-Cultural Research (UCSF - May 2010)
Qualitative Methods in Minority Aging Research (UCLA, Mignon Moore, under development)
Status from October 2014: Mignon distributed a list of references in September and
requested feedback. She is trying to determine whether the list is complete. Steve W.
suggested more specific info on the Handbook chapter. The Handbook includes James
Jackson; perhaps the Handbook should be on our home page. Anita shared some links for
inclusion prior to the call. Anita also suggested that articles on qualitative methods for
recruitment be in a separate list on recruitment methods, with assistance from the
RCMAR Community Liaison Core.

Best Practices for Mixed Methods Research in the Health Sciences - NIH Office of
Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (also relevant to quantitative analytic methods
listed directly below)
Quantitative Analytic Methods


Strengthening Causal Inference in Nonrandomized Health Disparity Designs (DATE?
WHO?)
Moderator and Mediator Analyses for Investigating Determinants of Health
Disparities (Tom Templin, WSU/UMich-MCUAAAR under development)
Status in January: Tom was concerned that some new developments are taking place in
this field, with some new people challenging some of the assumptions of
moderator/mediator analyses such as Tyler J. VanderWeele (Harvard Dept. of
Epidemiology and Biostatistics). We suggested that he proceed with the list of good
articles even if the methods are being questioned, because there are numerous
approaches. Anita agreed to share the list with Steven Gregorich at UCSF who teaches
moderation and mediation in their health disparities methods course. Steve Schwartz
noted another resource: http://quantpsy.org/pubs.htm
Concepts and Measures of Race/Ethnicity and Ethnic Identity


Ethnic Identity References
Race/Ethnicity - Conceptualization
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

Race/Ethnicity - Data Quality
Racial/Ethnic Discrimination Measurement
Specific Measures in Minority Populations



SF-36 in Older Minority Populations
Measuring Depression
Measuring Health Literacy
Measuring and Modeling Cognition in Diverse Older Populations (Dan Mungas - UC Davis and Jeanne Teresi – under development)
In November 2014, Dan proposed an idea for reorganization of the cognition section of the
bibliography, and asked for input by next month’s call:
Measuring and Modeling Cognition in Diverse Older Populations (53 references in total)
I.
Issues/Guidelines for Cognitive Assessment in Racially/Ethnically and Linguistically
Diverse Older Persons
II.
Psychometric Properties of Cognitive Tests in Diverse Racial/Ethnic/Linguistic Groups
III.
Measurement Invariance in Diverse Racial/Ethnic/Linguistic Groups
a. Differential Item Function (20 of 53 references)
b. Factorial Invariance
IV.
Measuring Longitudinal Change in Cognition
a. Incident Cognitive Impairment in Diverse Racial/Ethnic/Linguistic Groups
b. Continuous Cognitive Decline in Diverse Racial/Ethnic/Linguistic Groups
V.
Special Applications and Special Populations for Cognitive Assessment
a. Dementia Screening
b. Alzheimer’s Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment
c. Special Care Units
d. Measuring Cognitive Reserve
Status from December 2014: Jeanne offered some comments/asked questions about
Dan’s outline (shared at the November meeting), and said she would review his reference
list.
Use of Internet Panels to Conduct Health Disparities Research (Ron Hays and Arie
Kapteyn, UCLA/USC)

Online Panels, American Association of Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) Report, 2010
1. Status from December 2014: Ron reported on the 15-minute presentation that he gave
(coauthored by Arie and Honghu Liu) at the Society of Computers in Psychology annual
meeting held on November 20, 2014 in Long Beach, CA. Papers presented at this
conference are submitted for publication in Behavioral Research Methods. The paper
summarizing the presentation was submitted at the end of the December: Hays, R. D.,
Liu, H., & Kapteyn, A. (submitted). Use of internet panels to conduct surveys. Behavior
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Research Methods. Ron circulated a document on January 11 (Panel_Abstracts.doc) that
included a one-page summary and 6 subsequent pages of annotated abstracts for posting
on the analysis group section of the RCMAR website.
.
Secondary Datasets on Minority Aging Issues (Deep South – Rob Weech-Maldonado and
Giyeon Kim) under development
Status from November 2014: A paper has been submitted to Journal of Aging and Health
that seems to have all of the information that would need to be in our reference list, so to
what extent can we use this? Perhaps we would include in our list the abstract, a brief
overview that we write, and a link to the paper.
Methodological Issues Conducting Interventions to Reduce Disparities

Methodological Resources for Translating Evidence-Based Behavioral Interventions (EBI)
to Reach Disparity Populations in Ethnically Diverse Communities (UCSF – August, 2014)
Depression (development TBA)

Who is doing this?
Discussion of Annotated Bibliographies as a RCMAR Resource
Some topics have too many references. Suggest breaking into multiple sections, perhaps with
an overview section.
Discussion of Other Potential Resources to be Posted from Analysis Cores
There was discussion on online resources with archives of research methodology seminars,
such as the VA HSR&D and UCLA C-MORE. Ron shared the links for these sites:
VA Information Resource Center (VIReC) Cyberseminars
http://www.virec.research.va.gov/Resources/Cyberseminars.asp
UCLA Center for Maximizing Outcomes and Research on Effectiveness
(C-MORE) http://cmore.med.ucla.edu/
Steve W. also mentioned the UCLA GIM noon seminar series with live streaming as resource.
For example, Ron was presenting on October 24 on the “Change in Health-Related Quality of
Life from LASIK Surgery.” This seminar series is not archived.
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