The Data Management and Statistics Core will provide data management and statistical consulting to all projects in the Program Project. The Core will design and maintain a centralized data base for each project using the management system developed for the Behavioral Medicine Research Center (BMRC). The scope of the work in data management includes the development of casebooks for data collection, storage and security of data, development of data entry programs, data entry, maintenance of data files, generation of monthly reports on the status of data, and preparation of data for detailed statistical analyses. Core D will also have primary responsibility for all data screening and statistical analyses in support of the specific aims and hypotheses for each project, as well as analyses of common variables across the two human projects. The general approach for testing the main project hypotheses for the human studies will include the use of general mixed models using SAS PROC MIXED [1]. These models will include intervention and time, their interaction and appropriate covariates. Prior to formal tests of hypotheses involving measures of depression, psychosocial functioning, and health quality of life, measurement models will be tested using confirmatory factor analysis to determine factorial invariance across Spanish/English speaking groups. Dr. Maria Llabre, Professor of Psychology, will supervise all activities of the Core. She has expertise in psychometric theory and applied statistics and, as director of statistics of the BMRC, she has supervised a data management and data analysis team for the past 20 years, and has published applications of the statistical methods proposed. Dr. Llabre's team includes Dr. Feng Zhao who has been the director of data management at the BMRC for the past 5 years. This team has successfully worked together on similar program projects in cardiovascular disease, cancer, and HIV.
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