A Master Course on Power for Multilevel and Longitudinal Health Behavior Studies

描述（由申请人提供）：一个由生物统计学、社会与行为科学、软件工程、少数民族招聘和教育技术专家组成的多元化高素质团队，拟开发、实施、评估和传播一个名为“多层次和纵向健康行为研究的动力硕士课程”的短期课程。这个短期课程将为行为和社会科学家提供培训。本课程涵盖创新的、基于研究的权力和样本大小方法，以及用于多层次和纵向研究的软件。研究教育提案包含了从生物医学研究中历史上代表性不足的群体中招募课程参与者的详细计划。本课程所教授的功率和样本量方法和软件可用于任何与健康相关的应用。短期课程将使用癌症、心血管疾病、口腔健康、酒精和药物成瘾、健康差异、比较有效性以及临床和转化研究中的行为和社会科学实例。本研究包括四个具体目标：(1)为行为与社会科学研究中的多层次和纵向设计开发一门关于功率和样本量选择的硕士课程；(2)为行为和社会科学家的不同受众实施短期课程；(3)对课程进行评估，以确保它能很好地服务于不同的参与者；(4)通过在我们现有的网站上免费共享培训材料和开源软件，开发课程的网络研讨会版本，并在COURSERA上免费提供大规模开放在线课程，将课程传播给广泛的受众。更好的功效分析将确保研究的规模合适，以获得良好的结果，同时最大限度地减少研究参与者受到的伤害。反过来，更好的生物医学研究设计将改善美国人的健康。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A diverse and highly qualified team including experts in biostatistics, social and behavioral science, software engineering, minority recruitment, and educational technology propose to develop, implement, evaluate and disseminate a short course entitled "A Master Course on Power for Multilevel and Longitudinal Health Behavior Studies." The short course will provide training for behavioral and social scientists. The course covers innovative, research-based power and sample size methods, and software for multilevel and longitudinal studies. The research education proposal contains a detailed plan for recruiting course participants from groups historically underrepresented in biomedical research. The power and sample size methods and software taught in the course can be used for any health-related application. The short course will use behavioral and social science examples in cancer, cardiovascular disease, oral health, alcohol and drug addiction, health disparities, comparative effectiveness, and clinical and translational studies. The proposed study includes four specific aims: (1) Develop a master course on power and sample size choice for multilevel and longitudinal designs in behavioral and social science research; (2) Implement the short course for a diverse audience of behavioral and social scientists; (3) Evaluate the course to ensure it well serves its diverse participants; and (4) Disseminate the course to a wide audience by sharing training materials and open-source software freely on our existing website, developing a webinar version of the course, and offering the course free of charge on COURSERA as a Massive Open Online Course. Better power analysis will ensure that studies are the right size to achieve good results, while minimizing the exposure of research participants to harm. In turn, better design for biomedical studies will improve the health of Americans.