Measurement of social capital among clinical research trainees

Predoctoral MD-PhD grants as indicators of future NIH funding success

MD-PhD trainees constitute an important source of physician-scientists. Persistence on this challenging path is facilitated by success in garnering independent (R grant) support from the NIH. Published research tracks academic appointments and global R01 success for MD-PhD trainees but has not included information on future funding success of individual MD-PhD predoctoral grant holders. Here, we used data from the NIH RePORTER database to identify and track the funding trajectory of physician-scientists who received predoctoral grant support through the F30 mechanism, which is specific for dual-degree candidates. Male and female F30 awardees did not differ in their success in garnering K (postdoctoral training) grants, but, among F30 grant awardees, men were 2.6 times more likely than women to receive R funding. These results underscore the need for analysis of factors that contribute to the disproportionate loss of NIH-supported female physician-scientists between the predoctoral F30 and the independent R grant-supported stages.

If you build it, will they come? Linking researcher engagement and scientific productivity in large infrastructure grants

Introduction:

The NIH Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program supports the creation of program infrastructure promoting scientific collaboration and improvement in translational research. While most evaluations of these and similar programs focus on scientific outcomes such as grants and publications, few studies investigate the underlying mechanisms through which large infrastructure grants produce scientific or translational benefits. This study investigated how engagement – researchers’ interactions with CTSA-funded resources – can help to increase scientific productivity.

Methods:

Authors 1) developed process indicators to define engagement in the CTSA infrastructure at Washington University in St. Louis in four general categories (core service use, internal funding, mentor-mentee opportunities, and leadership roles); 2) explored the relationship between CTSA engagement and scholarly productivity; and 3) compared the relationships between engagement and productivity across gender and race/ethnicity. Mixed effects Poisson regressions modeled productivity outcomes on engagement, controlling for demographic and academic characteristics.

Results:

CTSA members who were engaged were more likely to publish papers and submit grants when compared to others. They were more likely to receive external grant awards – 10% to 20% percent more – than those who were not engaged. Productivity disparities between men and women and to a lesser extent across categories of race and ethnicity persisted even in samples matched on previous productivity levels.

Conclusions:

CTSAs could see larger growth in scientific productivity by increasing researcher engagement and addressing demographic disparities – possibly through focused communications to raise awareness of opportunities – and dissemination of case studies and success stories of engagement to membership.

Developing a social capital scale for family caregivers of people with dementia

Although several scales have been designed to measure social capital, none have been specialized for caregivers of people with dementia, even though social capital is important in terms of continuing care provision. Therefore, we developed and validated a 17-item measure to assess social capital among caregivers of people with dementia. We assessed psychometric properties using responses from a questionnaire survey that included a draft of a social capital scale. Factor analysis identified three factors involving 17 items with a Cronbach's alpha of .85. The intra-class coefficient for test-retest reliability was .71. The correlation with positive aspects of caregiving was .62 (p < .01). The results suggest that our scale could be a useful tool to assess social capital among caregivers of people with dementia.

Sowing the "CEED"s of a more diverse biomedical workforce: The Career Education and Enhancement for Health Care Research Diversity (CEED) program at the University of Pittsburgh

Purpose:

The need to diversify the biomedical research workforce is well documented. The importance of fostering the careers of fledgling underrepresented background (URB) biomedical researchers is evident in light of the national and local scarcity of URB scientists in biomedical research. The Career Education and Enhancement for Health Care Research Diversity (CEED) program at the University of Pittsburgh Institute for Clinical Research Education (ICRE) was designed to promote career success and help seal the “leaky pipeline” for URB researchers. In this study, we aimed to quantify CEED’s effect on several key outcomes by comparing CEED Scholars to a matched set of URB ICRE trainees not enrolled in CEED using data collected over 10 years.

Method:

We collected survey data on CEED Scholars from 2007 to 2017 and created a matched set of URB trainees not enrolled in CEED using propensity score matching in a 1:1 ratio. Poisson regression was used to compare the rate of publications between CEED and non-CEED URB trainees after adjusting for baseline number of publications.

Results:

CEED has 45 graduates. Seventy-six percent are women, 78% are non-White, and 33% are Hispanic/Latino. Twenty-four CEED Scholars were matched to non-CEED URB trainees. Compared to matched URB trainees, CEED graduates had more peer-reviewed publications (p=0.0261) and were more likely to be an assistant professor (p=0.0145).

Conclusions:

Programs that support URB researchers can help expand and diversify the biomedical research workforce. CEED has been successful despite the challenges of a small demographic pool.

A systematic review evaluating the psychometric properties of measures of social inclusion

INTRODUCTION

Improving social inclusion opportunities for population health has been identified as a priority area for international policy. There is a need to comprehensively examine and evaluate the quality of psychometric properties of measures of social inclusion that are used to guide social policy and outcomes.

OBJECTIVE

To conduct a systematic review of the literature on all current measures of social inclusion for any population group, to evaluate the quality of the psychometric properties of identified measures, and to evaluate if they capture the construct of social inclusion.

METHODS

A systematic search was performed using five electronic databases: CINAHL, PsycINFO, Embase, ERIC and Pubmed and grey literature were sourced to identify measures of social inclusion. The psychometric properties of the social inclusion measures were evaluated against the COSMIN taxonomy of measurement properties using pre-set psychometric criteria.

RESULTS

Of the 109 measures identified, twenty-five measures, involving twenty-five studies and one manual met the inclusion criteria. The overall quality of the reviewed measures was variable, with the Social and Community Opportunities Profile-Short, Social Connectedness Scale and the Social Inclusion Scale demonstrating the strongest evidence for sound psychometric quality. The most common domain included in the measures was connectedness (21), followed by participation (19); the domain of citizenship was covered by the least number of measures (10). No single instrument measured all aspects within the three domains of social inclusion. Of the measures with sound psychometric evidence, the Social and Community Opportunities Profile-Short captured the construct of social inclusion best.

CONCLUSIONS

The overall quality of the psychometric properties demonstrate that the current suite of available instruments for the measurement of social inclusion are promising but need further refinement. There is a need for a universal working definition of social inclusion as an overarching construct for ongoing research in the area of the psychometric properties of social inclusion instruments.

Development of an instrument for community-level health related social capital among Japanese older people: The JAGES Project

BACKGROUND

We developed and validated an instrument to measure community-level social capital based on data derived from older community dwellers in Japan.

METHODS

We used cross-sectional data from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study, a nationwide survey involving 123,760 functionally independent older people nested within 702 communities (i.e., school districts). We conducted exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses on survey items to determine the items in a multi-dimensional scale to measure community social capital. Internal consistency was checked with Cronbach's alpha. Convergent construct validity was assessed via correlating the scale with health outcomes.

RESULTS

From 53 candidate variables, 11 community-level variables were extracted: participation in volunteer groups, sports groups, hobby activities, study or cultural groups, and activities for teaching specific skills; trust, norms of reciprocity, and attachment to one's community; received emotional support; provided emotional support; and received instrumental support. Using factor analysis, these variables were determined to belong to three sub-scales: civic participation (eigenvalue = 3.317, α = 0.797), social cohesion (eigenvalue = 2.633, α = 0.853), and reciprocity (eigenvalue = 1.424, α = 0.732). Confirmatory factor analysis indicated the goodness of fit of this model. Multilevel Poisson regression analysis revealed that civic participation score was robustly associated with individual subjective health (Self-Rated Health: prevalence ratio [PR] 0.96; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.94-0.98; Geriatric Depression Scale [GDS]: PR 0.95; 95% CI, 0.93-0.97). Reciprocity score was also associated with individual GDS (PR 0.98; 95% CI, 0.96-1.00). Social cohesion score was not consistently associated with individual health indicators.

CONCLUSIONS

Our scale for measuring social capital at the community level might be useful for future studies of older community dwellers.

A training program in cardiovascular cell-based therapy: from the NHLBI Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Research Network

Stem/progenitor cell-based therapies offer novel treatment for many prevalent diseases. However, most physicians are not trained or introduced to cell therapy. We describe a model of a training program aimed at empowering physician-scientists with the knowledge and skills necessary for advancing the field of cardiovascular cell therapy. To date, five full-time scholars have completed this training program, obtained a full-time academic appointment in Cardiovascular Disease, and continue to actively contribute to the advancement of cell therapy applications. Another has returned to his parent institution to complete his PhD and several part-time scholars have continued in scholarly activities in other academic programs.