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).
García-Jimenez M, Santoyo-Olsson J, Ortiz C, Lahiff M, Sokal-Gutierrez K, Nápoles AM. Acculturation, Inner Peace, Cancer Self-efficacy, and Self-rated Health among Latina Breast Cancer Survivors. Journal of health care for the poor and underserved. 2014;25(4):1586-1602. doi:10.1353/hpu.2014.0158.
2.What was the definition of the construct?
Psychoscoial model of adaptation to cancer.
“Constructs of self-efficacy and spiritual well beings ( religious and non religious) are rooted in cultural beliefs and are associated with acculturation. “
Authors hypothesized that greater acculturation is associated positively with self reported health and that this relationship is partial mediated by cancer self efficacy and spiritual well being.
Predictor Variable
Author used SASH , Short Acculturation Scale for Hispanics. Crohnbach’s alpha for acculturation scale was .95.
Mediators
Cancer self-efficacy was measured with Cancer Behavior Inventory – Breast cancer
Cronbach’s alpha was .80
Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Quality of Life Measurement System-Spiritual Well-being Scale was used for spiritual well being.
Cronbach's alpha for the scale was 0.82 in our sample
The outcome variable, SRH, was measured by the item “In general, how would you rate your health?
A mediation analysis was used to confirm mediators and set of predictors.
3.How did the authors provide evidence on the validity of the measure? Could you think of additional approaches to validating the measure?
Using multivariate logistic regression, the four mediation steps were modeled separately for each mediator of interest that was related to SRH at p <.15 in bivariate analyses.
4 requirements of mediation analysis were fulfilled as well.
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?
Crohnnach’s alpha was used as the reliability of the measure
5.Describe the implications of a lack of measurement reliability for future
research applications.
While the modeling takes in to account several variable there are other issues such as ether greater self reported health is associated with greater self efficacy and well being.
It is also challenging to consider intervention. Language proficiency was an important predictor. However we do not know if language concordance may have been associated with higher self efficacy and self reported health.
Part 2:
1.Find a paper describing a health disparity (please give the full citation)
- Racial disparity in in-hospital mortality after lobectomy for lung cancer
Harrison, Meredith A. et al.
The American Journal of Surgery , Volume 209 , Issue 4 , 652 - 658
2.Summarize the construct and measurement of the dimension of disparity (e.g., race, SES) and the outcome measured (e.g., self-rated health).
Race was the important predictor measure, SES was also used with insurance income level, education, type of hospital and annual lobectomy volume.
3.What is the evidence for the validity and reliability of the measures?
This was a database study,
4.What is the reference category used for the disparity measure? Why does this reference category make sense (or not) for this research question?
Reference category was non-black. This makes sense as the African Americans are more like to have worse outcomes than other groups.
5.How is the disparity quantified? 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.
Disparities is identified by odd ratio which is a relative measures. I think both relative and absolute measures are important here. Absolute measure are significant in defining the extent of the problem and its impact on cancer outcomes.