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).
P. Gadhoke, S. Pemberton, A. Foudeh, B.P. Brenton, Development and validation of the Social Determinants of Health Questionnaire and implications for “Promoting Food Security and Healthy Lifestyles” in a complex urban food ecosystem., Ecol. Food Nutr. 57 (2018) 261–281. https://ucsf.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://doi.org/10.1080/03670244.2018.1481835.
2. What was the definition of the construct?
Food insecurity was defined as “the social and economic condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food”, borrowed from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Economic Research Service.
3. How did the authors provide evidence on the validity of the measure? Could you think of additional approaches to validating the measure?
The questionnaire underwent pilot testing to test its validity using the pencil and paper interview method where interviewers underwent a 2-day training workshop by the PI and 30 participants recruited from food pantry and soup kitchen clients were interviewed by these interviewers with the questionnaire. The authors could have additionally correlated the results of their questionnaire with measures it theoretically should correlate with (construct validity) such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension, CAD, etc.
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?
Reliability testing was also done using the pencil and paper interview method. Reliability was assessed through calculating Cronbach’s alpha on all possible scales to reflect how well a set of the scaled items collectively represent a latent construct. To increase reliability, the authors can repeat the same question in a different way and see if they still get similar responses.
5. Describe the implications of a lack of measurement validity or reliability for future research applications.
Food insecurity is associated with multiple negative health conditions (diabetes, hypertension, obesity) and disproportionately affects urban, low-income, urban communities. Without an ability to measure the social determinants of food insecurity in a valid and reliable manner, researchers would not be able to determine preventable causes of food security, and so measures designed to alleviate these causes could not be created.
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)
A.J. Iwata, A.M. Williams, A.R. Taylor, S.S. Chang, Socioeconomic disparities and comorbidities, not race, affect salivary gland malignancy survival outcomes, Laryngoscope. 127 (2017) 2545–2550. https://ucsf.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://doi.org/10.1002/lary.26633.
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).
The authors looked at differences in overall 5- year and 10- year survival in malignant salivary gland cancer patients between different socioeconomic and racial groups. Measures of socioeconomic status were extrapolated from population data for each ZIP code, such as level of education, proportion of houses occupied vs rented by residents, proportion of residents’ income below federal poverty line. Disease-specific information regarding stage of disease, type of disease, comorbidities, and treatment were collected individually.
3. What is the evidence for the validity and reliability of the measures?
The authors used population data from the 2010 United States Census and so did not feel compelled to provide evidence on the validity or reliability of their population data. They defended their use of geocoding residential addresses, stating it has been “accepted as a meaningful solution to limited individual data.”
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
Caucasians were used as the reference category, which makes sense in this case because Caucasians were not only the largest group, but also stated to be the “default” or most advantaged group.
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.
Overall 5- and 10- year survival was measured by the medical record. Disparities in overall survival were given as a relative measure using hazard ratios (Caucasian group as reference). I prefer absolute measures in this case because I think patients care about the absolute length of their survival rather than whether they have less time than their wealthier, more privileged counterparts.