This Methods/Data Analysis Core is designed to do the following:
- Improve the overall design of the RPs and R01 research grant applications subsequently developed;
- Assist in selection of appropriate measures for operationalizing the key constructs relevant to these studies and research grant applications;
- Demonstrate strategies by which to accommodate cultural variation likely to affect the reliability and validity of said measures;
- Review all draft instrumentation for formatting and coding efficiency;
- Introduce state-of-the-art data collection procedures (e.g., structured protocols, computer-assisted methods) that minimize information, method, and interviewer sources of variation;
- Anticipate sensory limitations (e.g., visual and hearing impairments) among older adults that may require specialized data collection procedures;
- Ensure adequate consideration of options regarding sampling plans and their relative merits;
- Highlight personnel and policy issues that frequently arise in the course of fielding studies in AI/AN communities;
- Acquaint participants with analytic techniques that address the psychometric performance of study measures and that are appropriate to the questions to be asked of the data;
- Analyze data generated by the RPs as well as pursue related secondary analysis of existing data, the results of which may inform primary data collection; and
- Encourage attention to qualitative as well as quantitative research methods, their integration, and relative merit in explicating the phenomena studied.