The identification of disparities in health between racial and ethnic minorities as compared to White populations has brought to light the immediate need for better, more comprehensive research. This research should not only address and challenge the current methodology, constructs, and interpretations applied to studying health but also have the ability to develop more culturally competent approaches to understand and ultimately eliminate health disparities. It is through rigorous research of this nature that the factors that contribute to health disparities existing deeper than the simple categorization of race/ethnicity will be identified. The UCLA Center for Research, Education, Training, and Strategic Communications on Minority Health Disparities' (CRETSCMHD) Quantitative Core, part of the Shared Resource Cores, will offer leadership in health research by functioning both in the development and application phase of statistical and methodological tools for the study of health disparity. The Quantitative Core will function in three major domains to: 1. Develop new approaches in working with current data 2. Translate new constructs and conceptualizations for studying minority health into analytic tools 3. Support researchers with design and analytic expertise on quantitative techniques In each of these domains, the Quantitative Core will work alongside the Communities-In-Context, Qualitative, and Community Cores to invite multiple perspectives and collaboration. Unique to this Core as well as the Center, is the diversity in disciplines and experience of the Core members. The Quantitative Core will place an equal emphasis on working with current research and the development of new approaches. While the current analytic tools used to interpret health data are problematic in that they fail to be fully inclusive (e.g., multi-racial identity), the Quantitative Core will work to develop more innovative, analytic alternatives such as the application of Item Response Theory (IRT). Furthermore, the Core will serve as a resource and centralized structure for the entire Center for data management and as a repository of newly developed analytic tools for measuring relevant factors such as social class and socio-economic status (SES). The Quantitative Core assumes a crucial role in realizing the Center's goal in the reduction and eventual elimination of disparities in health by serving both as the backbone resource to the Center's investigators as well as the site where new tools responding to methodological and conceptual needs will be conceived and developed.
NIH ExPorter
NIH ExPorter