The Methodology, Data Management and Analysis Core (MDMAC) will provide technical support and training of investigators developing or performing intervention and other geriatric research projects, and will develop new instruments and methodologies to enable future studies. Thus the MDMAC will both address techniques for appropriate design and execution of current experiments and build the foundation for future research studies. Building on our experience with the UM Pepper Center, the MDMAC will address the needs of OAIC investigators for assistance in the design of intervention experiments, and the maintenance, analysis, and interpretation of their data. These needs will be addressed with consultation and training from UM experts in a spectrum of fields including biostatistics, survey analysis, operations research and mathematical modeling, information system and computer data structures, cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis, and use of archival data sets in aging. In the new grant cycle, we will also add the assistance of faculty with expertise in epidemiological methods, econometrics, and training important for data collection. Methodological development will address new approaches to intervention design, measurement instruments (such as assessment systems), the maintenance of a data archive of nursing home resident assessments, and new methods to evaluate data quality and summarize patterns in longitudinal data such as changes in nursing home residents' function over time. All MDMAC functions will address issues specific to analysis of the elderly, including longitudinal analysis, censored samples, and non-response, and effective methods to maintain project data. The Core will directly support Intervention Development Studies (40% effort) as well as other research projects (40% effort), with priority given to junior investigators. The remain effort will be devoted to methodological and archive development of direct relevance to future intervention studies (20%).
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