3109 - Small is Essential: Integrating Methodological, Etiological and Intervention Research in Small Populations

Session Submission Type: Workshop

Description

The ability to harness the benefits of ‘big data’ has had a revolutionary impact on science, with its focus on the volume and variety of data sources and application of both traditional and innovative analytic methods appropriate for large, aggregated datasets. We are concerned, however, about the opposite: ‘small data’ for which the size, dispersion, or accessibility of the population of interest makes it difficult to obtain adequate sample sizes to test specific research questions. Examples include racial or ethnic subpopulations (e.g., Honduran Americans), populations occurring in specific geographic areas, and populations that have relatively rare characteristics (e.g., transsexuals). Data from these groups, however, are critical if we want to include health-related issues across all populations in cancer research. Ultimately, it is critical to ensure that all segments of the US population benefit from this research, and from the latest technologic advances in health services and delivery.

There are potential negative ramifications of not including underrepresented groups in research—or inappropriately aggregating them across groups. Intervention research often does not include a wide range of racial/ethnic subgroups; so, it is not feasible to test whether an intervention created specifically for the majority group is also efficacious for the subgroups. Likewise, the ability to test whether an intervention can be altered for another subgroup is also often not possible. Epidemiologic and surveillance research usually involves the inclusion of “minority or underserved populations” in addition to white/non-Hispanic white (NHW) groups. While this has allowed for a better understanding of these smaller populations and provides some progress toward addressing health inequities, there remain pockets of communities that are severely underrepresented within the broader “minority and underserved populations”.

The workshop will consider ways of addressing the challenges of conducting surveillance/etiological studies or intervention research with small population groups, including alternative study designs, innovative methodologies for data collection, and/or innovative statistical techniques for analysis. Specifically, the workshop will focus on integrating intervention and methodological research as an answer to:
1. The many unanswered questions about working with small populations;
2. The simultaneous urgent need for progress; and
3. The problem of asserting generalizability for independent methodological studies.
There will also be some specific areas of research, such as cancer control, that will be highlighted in the papers and workshop. The workshop is mainly presentations related to a recent workshop at the National Academy of Sciences on small populations and an opportunity for sociologists to be exposed to research strategies from other fields of science.

Sub Unit

• Workshops / Policy and Research Workshop

Session Organizer

• Shobha Srinivasan, National Cancer Institute

Leader

• Shobha Srinivasan, National Cancer Institute

Panelists

• Michael L. Spittel, NICHD

• David Berrigan, National Cancer Institute

• Patrick Sullivan, Emory University

• Kathi Mooney, Huntsman Cancer Institute

• Krista Gile, University of Massachusetts