Schedule and Presentations 2005
The second annual conference on application of modern psychometric methods to measurement issues in health care fields will be held August 22-26 at the University of Washington Research Station at Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. This year’s theme will be application of psychometric methods to measurement of cognitive impairment in ethnically diverse older persons. It will address issues of measurement bias and methodology for separating effects on cognitive tests of diseases of aging like Alzheimer’s disease from biasing influences associated with ethnicity. The format will include didactic presentations related to substantive and methodological issues and small work groups to conduct analyses to address problems discussed in the presentations. Didactic presentations will generally be in the morning, work groups will convene in the afternoon, and workgroups will report on their progress in the evening. The workgroups will be organized around several scientific manuscripts and the goal will be to complete analyses and preliminary drafts during the week. A large-sample database from a study of neuropsychological tests administered to Whites, English and Spanish speaking Latinos, and African Americans will be available for analyses. Conference participants will have a common interest in practical application of psychometric and statistical data analytic methods, but will have varied backgrounds in terms of specific areas of expertise and level of training and experience.