The Columbia Center for the Active Life of Minority EIders (CALME) currently includes five cores. Because of the importance of both measurement and methods, CALME includes both a Measurement Core (Core IV) and a Methods and Data Core (MDC) (Core V). The MDC has three main aims: (1) to produce and apply new methods for studying health problems among ethnically. diverse populations; (2) to provide technical assistance to the CALME as well as other RCMAR investigators, as needed; and (3) to provide a method and structure for mentoring the CALME pilot investigators through the Methods and Data Seminars. Seven specific goals are described in detail in the proposal. The MDC will work with the Measurement Cores, assisting in the appraisal of measures, including the development of and/or selection of relatively more culture-fair measures; with the Investigator Development Core in the oversight and mentoring of investigators, and with the Coordinating Center in the development of item banks, and with other RCMAR centers in the development of a published volume of reviews of methodologies used to develop culturally sensitive measures and to study longitudinal health outcomes among ethnically diverse populations. The MDC will work with the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC) in the oversight of measurement and methods issues as they relate to projects that focus on ethnically diverse populations. A research focus of the CALME RCMAR is on methods that have been used to examine measures of health constructs among culturally diverse elderly populations. Different methodologies for the detection of differential item functioning (D/F) have been used to examine assessment scales in crosscultural research. Members of the CALME RCMAR have contributed several review articles regarding these methods. The previous research of the CALME focused on cognition. Several methodological and substantive reviews were contributed; additionally a more culture-fair cognitive screening measure was published. The substantive focus of the measurement core for the next five years will continue to be on quality of life, and within that, on examining affective states.
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