Part 1:
1. Choose a paper describing the development or validation of a measure of relevance in health disparities research (please give the full citation and/or upload the paper if that's possible).
Tyralynn Frazier, Carol J. Hogue, and Kathryn M. Yount. The Development of the Healthy Pregnancy Stress Scale, and Validation in a Sample of Low-Income African American Women. Matern Child Health J. 2018 Feb; 22(2): 247–254. doi: 10.1007/s10995-017-2396-7
2. What was the definition of the construct?
This study describes the development and validation of the Healthy Pregnancy Stress Scale, which is intended to measure stress among low-income African American women during pregnancy.
3. How did the authors provide evidence on the validity of the measure? Could you think of additional approaches to validating the measure?
They first used an open-ended survey among 100 African American women who had given birth within the last year. They then used the results of this survey to develop a questionnaire. They had 178 women complete the questionnaire. They report inter-item covariance. This are not very clear measures to me, but seem to compare areas of expected agreement in the survey. I think they could give clearer descriptions of how they come to this measure.
4. How did the authors provide evidence on the reliability of the measure? Could you think of additional approaches to evaluating the reliability of the measure?
They report a scale of reliability coefficient. Again, they don’t give clear guidance on what this measure is and how it is calculated. I think they could give a clearer more comprehensive view of how they get this measure.
5. Describe the implications of a lack of measurement validity or reliability for future research applications.
I think that in some ways finding measures of validity and reliability are problematic in scores that measure aspects of personal experience because of diversity in experience. I do see how validating measures are helpful to help assure that the scale measures what it intends to measure. I don’t think that validation in one study assures that it will necessarily apply to a population in another study, however.
Part 2:
1. Find a paper describing a health disparity (please give the full citation or, even better, upload the paper so everyone else can look at it too)
Myra J. Tucker, BSN, MPH, Cynthia J. Berg, MD, MPH, William M. Callaghan, MD, MPH, and Jason Hsia, PhD. The Black–White Disparity in Pregnancy-Related Mortality From 5 Conditions: Differences in Prevalence and Case-Fatality Rates. Am J Public Health. 2007 February; 97(2): 247–251. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2005.072975
2. Summarize the construct and measurement of the dimension of disparity (e.g., racial inequalities?, SES inequalities?) and the outcome measured (e.g., self-rated health).
This study measures Black-White disparities in pregnancy-related morbidity and mortality. They measure the prevalence in 5 pregnancy related conditions, preeclampsia, eclampsia, abruption, placenta previa, postpartum hemorrhage. They also measure mortality in each race related to each of these conditions.
3. What is the evidence for the validity and reliability of the measures?
There is no specific evidence for the use of this measure. But this paper is simply using national level data and looking at prevalence rates of certain morbid pregnancy-related conditions and mortality attributed to these conditions. They use data from the National Hospital Discharge Survey which is collected by the National Center for Health Statistics. The measures seem reliable.
4. What is the reference category used for the disparity measure (ie, who is the comparison group)? Why does this reference category make sense (or not) for this research question?
The reference category is white women with each of the 5 specified pregnancy conditions. This paper is specifically asking about Black-White disparities in maternal mortality, so the comparison seems appropriate.
5. How is the disparity quantified or measured? Is this an absolute or relative measure or are both provided? Describe which type of measure you would prefer for this research area, or, if both, why.
They measure the prevalence rate for preeclampsia, eclampsia, placental abruption, placenta previa, and postpartum hemorrhage for Black and White women from 1988-1999. They compare the prevalence rate between Black and White women to give a ratio. They also give the case-fatility rate for each condition and compare this between Black and White women to give a ratio. I think having both pieces of information is helpful because it gives you an idea or the magnitude of the problem and the magnitude of the disparity.