“What Exactly Are We Measuring? Harmonization of Assessments of Older Adults”

Abstract: The study of human aging is replete with “constructs” that are multidimensional or cannot be measured with single, simple assessments—disability, frailty, and cognition, to name a few. Multiple assessments are then utilized to represent the target of measurement: Whether they represent that target comparably across all assessment contexts may then be in question. As one example, specific measures may change over repeated instances of measurement; as another, same measures may differentially assess the same health state across subgroups. In this talk, the issues are studied within a latent variable modeling framework. Methods for addressing them are delineated, and improved methods for identifying assessments in need of harmonization are described. The methods are illustrated using data on human aging.

Division of Biostatistics seminars

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