RCMAR Analysis Core Conference Minutes
December 17, 2013 8:00 A.M. to 9:00 A.M. (Pacific)
I. Roll call, availability, and role assignments for next teleconference
Name
Hays, Ron (UCLA)
Kapteyn, Arie (USC)
Moore, Mignon (UCLA)
Mungas, Dan (UC Davis)
Schwartz, Steve (U Wash/U Colorado)
Stewart, Anita (UCSF)
Templin, Tom (WSU/U Mich)
Teresi, Jeanne (Columbia U)
Wallace, Steve (UCLA Coord Center)
Weech-Maldonado, Rob (UAB)
Facilitator
Present Dec 17
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Dan Mungas
Recorder
Ron Hays
Available Jan 21
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Rob WeechMaldonado
Anita Stewart
II. Review and approval of minutes from November call
The minutes were approved and will be forwarded to Steve W. for posting on the password
restricted area of the RMCAR web site (http://www.rcmar.ucla.edu/). Use rcmar, rcmar-II
(capitol I’s).
III. Additional/deletions to agenda
Issues about the website section on annotated bibliographies were discussed (V below).
IV. Announcements
Steve W. announced that the GSA Preconference workshop proposal for NIA funding received
a perfect 10. A proposed workshop of particular relevance is the 2015 workshop on use of
well-being measures in minority aging research. The paragraph and table submitted about that
workshop is provided below.
2015: Use of Well-being Measures in Minority Aging Research. As the interest in healthy
aging has grown, measuring subjective well-being has become part of identifying trends in aging
and evaluating the impacts of policy on health. A NIA/Brookings 2011 workshop concluded that
subjective well-being measures could be useful and appropriate for targeted populations and
policies, although the usefulness for the general population was uncertain.13 Key issues included
variations in how behavior is influenced by well-being in different groups, how to account for
adaptation to objectively bad circumstances, how different groups interpret survey questions on
well-being, and how to include equity considerations. The goals of this conference are to
introduce minority aging researchers to the usefulness and impact of research on well-being, to
connect leading researchers in the measuring well-being to scholars in minority aging, to
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stimulate new research using state of the art measures on well-being relevant to minority
elderly populations, and improve the utility of research on well-being among elders of color in
policy and practice. The objectives are for participants to improve their understanding of wellbeing theory, methods, and application so that they are better able to incorporate well-being in
their research questions, analysis, and dissemination. The morning will be devoted to
presentations from leaders in the field of well-being measures reviewing key domains in wellbeing as they apply to minority aging. The afternoon will focus on practice skills and include a
small group breakout session led by the speakers to discuss to incorporate well-being measures
into their own minority aging research agendas.
2015 Topics
Speaker
Affiliation
Keynote: State of the Art Arthur Stone, PhD
Distinguished Professor, Stony Brook
in Measuring Subjective
University.; Chair, NAS panel on
Well-being
Measuring subjective well-being
Economic Approaches
Arie Kapteyn, PhD
Prof., Econ.; Assoc. Dir. USC RCMAR;
Former Dir., Roybal Center, Financial
Decision-making, RAND
Psychological Approaches
Carol Ryff, PhD
Professor, Psychology, Univ. of Wis.Madison
Cross national/cross
Carol Graham, PhD
College Park Professor, Univ. of Maryland
cultural perspectives
School of Public Policy
Integrating minority aging James S. Jackson,
Professor, Univ. of Michigan & RCMAR
issues, Discussion by
PhD
Distinguished Prof., U Colorado-Denver
RCMAR directors
Spero Manson, PhD
&RCMAR
Eliseo PérezStable,MD
Ron Hays, PhD
Testing measurement
equivalence
Subjective well-being vs.
Anita Stewart, PhD
health-related quality of
life
Measurement of well-being Jacqui Smith, PhD
in national datasets
Professor, UC-San Francisco & RCMAR
Professor, GIM/HSR, UC-Los Angeles &
RCMAR
Professor, Institute on Aging, UC-San
Francisco & RCMAR
Professor, Psychology; Co-I, Health &
Retirement Study, Univ. of Michigan &
RCMAR
Arie K. mentioned and circulated by email a copy of “Subjective Well-Being: Measuring
Happiness, suffering, and other dimensions of experience” (authored by Kapteyn, Lee, Tassot,
Vonkova, and Zamarrow) and a National Research Council of the National Academies report,
“Panel on measuring subjective well-being in a policy-relevant framework” (edited by Arthur A.
Stone and Christopher Mackie). Arie also noted that Arthur Stone is moving to USC from Stony
Brook.
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Tom T. suggested we consider using web meeting for some future calls. Steve W. will have the
coordinating center use Adobe Connect on the next call. Dan M. indicated he has had success
using this software with voice over IP or with a separate call-in number. Gotomeeting.com has
also been used by RCMAR analysis core members.
Steve W. pronounced that the annual RCMAR meeting will be at USC on March 31, 2014 and the
RCMAR Analysis Core will have 45 minutes to meet that day.
V. Annotated Bibliographies – Disseminating Research Methods
The Appendix shows the current status of the Annotated Bibliographies:
http://www.rcmar.ucla.edu/rcmar_wiki/References.html
There was discussion about the structure of the annotated bibliographies. Suggestions made by
Dan M. and others during the call are reflected in the Appendix to these minutes (hopefully).
Also, Anita S. would like the bibliographies to be downloadable.
Tom T. wants feedback on the draft bibliographic section he circulated by email.
VI. Possible RCMAR webinar series related to minority aging methods
The group agreed that it was time to close this topic. Our focus shall be on the 2015 GSA preconference workshop and on the possibility of a 2014 GSA symposium.
VII. Issues in Use of NIH Toolbox
We agreed to expand this topic to include measures included in the forthcoming NCI PersonCentered Outcomes Research Resource (PCAR) effort. The goal of PCAR is to bring four
existing person-centered outcome measures together (PROMIS, Toolbox, Neuro-QoL, Adult
Sickle Cell Quality of Life Measurement Information System—ASCQ-Me) and to educate, equip
and enable researchers and clinical providers to use them correctly and effectively.
VIII. Miscellany (no items discussed)
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IX. Post Call Details
2014 RCMAR Measurement and Methods Conference Call Assignments
Recorder
Month
January 21
February 18
March 18
April 15
May 20
June 17
July 15
August 19
September 16
October 21
November 18
December 16
Anita Stewart
Facilitator
Rob Weech-Maldonado
Summary of 2013 completed conference call participation
Name
Ron D. Hays
Arie Kapteyn
Mignon Moore
Dan Mungas
Steve Schwartz
Anita Stewart
Tom Templin
Rob Weech-Maldonado
Email Addresses
Ron D. Hays
Arie Kapteyn
Mignon Moore
Dan Mungas
Steve Schwartz
Anita Stewart
Tom Templin
Jeanne Teresi
Steven P. Wallace
Rob Weech-Maldonado
# Recorder
2
1
2
1
1
3
1
1
# Facilitator
2
2
0
2
1
1
2
2
Total count
4
3
2
3
2
4
3
3
drhays@ucla.edu
kapteyn@usc.edu
moore@soc.ucla.edu
dmmungas@ucdavis.edu
stevesch@u.washington.edu
anita.stewart@ucsf.edu
ac0410@wayne.edu
teresimeas@aol.com
swallace@ucla.edu
rweech@uab.edu
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Agenda for Next RCMAR Analysis Core Conference Call
January 21, 2014 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. Announcements
V. GSA Symposium (www.geron.org/abstracts)
VI. Annotated bibliographies
VII. Issues in Use of NIH Toolbox, PROMIS, ASCQ-Me, and Neuro-QOL
VIII. Miscellany
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APPENDIX: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHIES
December 17, 2013
The currently available annotated bibliographies, plus those being proposed or in process (in
italics), are shown below. We note the source (which center created the bibliography) and the
last time it was updated. Questions remain for several lists.
Methods for Developing, Adapting, and Evaluating Measures for Minority Populations
 Overviews of Measurement Issues (All; updated April 2013)
 Using Focus Groups in the Development of Structured Surveys (UCSF; updated Sept 2010)
 Using Cognitive Interviews to Develop Structured Surveys (UCSF; updated June 2010)
 IRT & DIF Readings (UCLA; updated July 2010)
 Guidelines for Translating Surveys in Cross-Cultural Research (UCSF; updated May 2010)
 Analyzing qualitative data (UCLA, Mignon Moore to draft)
 Strengthening Causal Inference in Nonrandomized Health Disparity Designs (UMICH:
updated April, 2013)
 Longitudinal methods (UMICH; Tom is working to finalize this and will contact Arie for input
on econometrics- targeted for 2014)
 Online panels (USC, UCLA, UCD: Arie and Ron will draft by January 2013)
Race/Ethnicity and Ethnic Identify Concepts and Measures
 Ethnic Identity References (UW/UC; updated 2005))
 Race/Ethnicity - Conceptualization (Coordinating Center; updated August 2011)
 Race/Ethnicity - Data Quality (Coordinating Center; updated August 2011)
 Racial/Ethnic Discrimination Measurement (UCSF; updated February 2010)
Health-Related Concepts and Measures
 Cognition and Cognitive Function
o Measuring and Modeling Cognitive Function (Columbia U/Jeanne; updated April
2010)
o Issues in Measuring Cognition in Alzheimer’s Disease (Dan, under development)
 Affect/Emotion
o Measuring Depression (Columbia U/Jeanne; updated April 2007) Dan might be able
to make additions)
 Measuring Health-Related Quality of Life
o SF-36 in Older Minority Populations (UCLA; updated July 2010)
 Measuring Health Literacy (U PENN, updated June 2010)
Secondary Data Analysis and Available Datasets

Secondary Datasets on Minority Aging Issues (UAB; Giyeon Kim, a RCMAR scholar, is
developing this based on a paper on this topic)
Methodological Issues Conducting Interventions to Reduce Disparities

Methods for adapting interventions for vulnerable population groups (UCSF; updated
November, 2013)
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