Methodologists can make important contributions to understanding how and why Als experience health disparities, the aims of this Research Core are driven by a desire to maximize scientific rigor. To uncover the subtle and complex individual, familial, and community factors that are the root causes of Al behavioral health disparities, it is essential to observe the utmost thoroughness in study design, sample selection, and measurement, as well as in collection, management, and analysis of study data. During all 5 years of the BHCRAIC, Research Core investigators will capitalize on the resources of the WSU Quantitative Methods in Health Consortium, which has particular expertise in latent variable modeling, especially for psychometric data. This expertise will be invaluable in understanding the validity of measures in specific cultural contexts. This Research Core will also leverage the contributions of methodologists at the UW Center for Clinical and Epidemiological Research, the home of Partnerships for Native Health, which currently supports multiple program projects funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and numerous collaborative agreements. A major strength of this proposal is the pooled expertise of the WSU and UW groups, which will assist Research Core methodologists in troubleshooting any issues of analysis and interpretation that may arise. These ongoing interactions and exchanges between WSU and UW scholars will tie critical to the design and data collection process, as well as the interpretation of specific BHCRAIC findings through its 3 Research Projects.
