Research Initiation Award: A Statistical Approach to Measuring Frailty in African Americans with Prediabetes and Diabetes: A Latent Class Analysis

HBCU-UP的研究启动奖为STEM教师开展研究活动提供支持，以进一步提高他们的研究能力和效率，并帮助提高hbcu的研究和教学水平。该奖项授予温斯顿-塞勒姆州立大学（WSSU），支持旨在识别患有前驱糖尿病和糖尿病的非裔美国成年人潜在脆弱性的研究。该项目将通过扩大学生的研究机会和加强该系在生物统计研究方面的研究基础设施，支持WSSU不断发展的数学项目。该项目将为本科生提供实践培训、指导和研究经验，以加强和扩大代表性不足群体在数学和统计学领域的参与，并为学生进入研究生课程和职业生涯做好准备。该项目有可能成为增加非裔美国人生物统计科学数量的典范，并通过让学生尽早参与研究，支持国家建立一支强大的STEM劳动力队伍。本项目旨在利用杰克逊心脏研究（JHS）提供的广泛的公共数据资源，进行一系列的二次数据分析，以检查患有前驱糖尿病和糖尿病的非裔美国成年人的脆弱性。本项目采用潜在类别统计分析方法测量脆弱性，主要有三个目的：1)开展非裔美国成人糖尿病前期和糖尿病患者脆弱性潜在特征识别的基础研究；2)检验脆弱性潜在特征在亚组间的统计变异性以及协变量间特征选择的影响；3)检验脆弱性潜在类别变量预测不良结局的预测效度。这个提议的项目将是第一个在非裔美国人中测试脆弱潜在阶层预测有效性的研究。该项目在使用潜在类别分析来检查患有前驱糖尿病和糖尿病的非洲裔美国人群的脆弱性方面是新颖的，并通过在潜在类别模型中调整协变量和根据糖尿病状态（前驱糖尿病或糖尿病）对个体进行分组来确定脆弱性概况，从而提高了生物统计学和老龄化研究领域的知识。该项目的教育部分将为代表性不足的本科生提供指导和研究培训机会，并增加他们对生物统计研究的知识。该项目使历史上处于边缘地位的群体参与生物统计工作，从而对其所在社区产生影响，从而造福社会。通过提高我们对非裔美国人糖尿病前期和糖尿病的患病率和严重程度的理解，以及它在预测不良后果方面的有效性，学生可以在他们的社区和家庭中担任主题专家，在这些社区和家庭中糖尿病或糖尿病前期可能更普遍。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

HBCU-UP’s Research Initiation Awards provide support for STEM faculty to pursue research activities to further their research capabilities and effectiveness and help enhance research and teaching at HBCUs. This award to Winston-Salem State University (WSSU) supports research aimed at identifying latent frailty profiles in African Americans adults with prediabetes and diabetes. This project will support WSSU’s growing mathematics program, by expanding research opportunities available to students and enhancing the department’s research infrastructure in biostatistical research. This project will provide hands-on training, mentoring, and research experiences to undergraduate students that will strengthen and broaden the participation of underrepresented groups in mathematics and statistics and prepare students for graduate programs and careers. The project has the potential to be a model for increasing the number of African Americans in biostatistical sciences and support the nations efforts in building a robust STEM workforce by engaging students early in research. This project aims to conduct a series of secondary data analyses, using the extensive public data resources provided by the Jackson Heart Study (JHS), to examine frailty in African American adults with prediabetes and diabetes. Using a latent class statistical analysis approach to measure frailty, this project’s three aims are 1) To conduct basic research in latent profile identification of frailty in African American adults with prediabetes and diabetes, 2) To examine the statistical variability of the latent profiles of frailty among subgroups and the impact of the profiles selection among covariates, and 3) To test the predictive validity of the frailty latent class variable to predict adverse outcomes. This proposed project will be the first study to test the predictive validity of frailty latent classes in African Americans. This project is novel in its use of latent class analysis to examine frailty in an African American population with prediabetes and diabetes and advances knowledge in the field of biostatistical and aging research by adjusting for covariates and grouping individuals by diabetes status (prediabetes or diabetes) in the latent class model to identify frailty profiles. Educational components of this project will provide mentoring and research training opportunities for underrepresented undergraduate students and increase their knowledge of biostatistical research. This project benefits society by engaging historically marginalized groups in biostatistics work which can impact the communities in which they originate. By enhancing our understanding regarding the prevalence and severity of frailty and its validity in predicting adverse outcomes in African Americans with prediabetes and diabetes, students can serve as topic experts within their communities and families in which diabetes or pre-diabetes may be more prevalent.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.