Gerontologic Biostatistics: Application and Resources

• Activity Number: 437
• Type: Roundtables
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 4, 2010 : 7:00 AM to 8:15 AM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistics in Epidemiology
• Author(s): Heather Gwynn Allore*+
• Companies: Yale University
• Keywords: Aging ; Applications ; Design ; Multicomponent interventions ; Missing data ; State-transition Models

Abstract

The health and life circumstances of older persons raise challenges for designing and analyzing research in which they participate. These challenges presented by elderly subjects are not unique but they are sufficiently distinctive to form the basis of Gerontologic Biostatistics. Their distinctiveness originates in the multifactorial etiologies of geriatric health syndromes and the multiple morbidities accruing at the end of life. This roundtable discusses statistical challenges arising in aging research. The statistical challenges include design and analytical strategies for multicomponent interventions, multiple outcomes, state transition models, floor and ceiling effects, missing data, and mixed methods. Practical resources reflecting advances in these areas are available from several sources, among them the Gerontologic Research Algorithms and Statistical Programs grasp.med.yale.edu