Clinical Research Oriented Workshop (CROW) Meeting: June 14, 2012

Present: Kairn Kelley, Amanda Kennedy, Rodger Kessler, Ben Littenberg, Prema Menon

1.                  Start Up:  Welcome to Prema Menon, new CTS PhD student

Presentation: The group discussed this article from Diabetes Care: Risk Factors for Hearing Impairment Among U.S. Adults With Diabetes, found at:

http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/34/7/1540.full.pdf+html

It's a paper using NHANES 3 data. The group came up with lots of questions, including some specific methodological questions. I emailed the first author of the paper with specific questions:

*I am having some trouble understanding Table 3. For low/mid-frequency hearing impairment is the reported odds ratio for HDL simultaneously corrected for self-reported poor health? Similarly for high-frequency impairment, is the odds ratio for coronary heart disease simultaneously corrected for peripheral neuropathy? (i.e., how many logistic regressions are reported in table 3?)

*It appears that the regressions in table 3 are limited to combinations of the variables coronary heart disease, HDL, neuropathy, poor health, age, race, marital status, and income to poverty ratio.

Is my interpretation correct? If so, can you help me understand why other potential confounders identified in table 2 were not included in the model?

I'll notify the group if/when I receive a response! [I forwarded to the group and replied to the author thanking her for her quick reply.]

2.                  Workshop Goals for 2012:

a.       Journal club: identify UVM guests and articles; invite to CROW ahead of time

b.      Research updates: share work-in-process

3.                  Next Workshop Meeting(s): Thursday, 11:00 p.m. – 12:00 p.m., at Given Courtyard Level 4. 

a.       June 28:  Rodger and Connie - R03 feedback from reviewers (no Ben or Amanda)

b.      July 5: TBD (no Kairn)

c.       July 12: (Connie by phone, no Abby or Kairn)

d.      July 19: (no Abby or Ben)

e.       July 26: (no Ben)

f.       Aug 2:

g.      Aug 9: (no Abby)

h.      Aug 16: (no Abby)

i.        Aug 23:

j.        Aug 30: (new schedule?)

k.      Future agenda to consider:

                                                  i.      Ben: budgeting exercise for grant applications

                                                ii.      Ben: Writer’s workshop on the effect of the built environment on BMI (Littenberg & Austin Troy)

                                              iii.      Journal Club: “Methods and metrics challenges of delivery-system research,” Alexander and Hearld, March 2012 (for later in the year?)

                                              iv.      Rodger: Mixed methods article; article on Behavior’s Influence on Medical Conditions (unpublished); drug company funding.  Also: discuss design for PCBH clinical and cost research.

                                                v.      Amanda: presentation and interpretation of data in articles

                                              vi.      Sharon Henry: article by Cleland, Thoracic Spine Manipulation, Physical Therapy 2007

Recorder: Kairn Kelley