Construct Validation of the Self-Efficacy Teaching and Knowledge Instrument for Science Teachers-Revised (SETAKIST-R): Lessons Learned.

Described herein is the academic lineage and independent validation of the Self-Efficacy Teaching and Knowledge Instrument for Science Teachers-Revised (SETAKIST-R). Data from 334 K-12 science teachers were analyzed using Partial Credit Rasch models. Principal components analysis on the person-item residuals suggest two latent dimensions: Knowledge and Teaching Self-Efficacies.

Getting the Word Out: Teaching Middle-School Children about Cardiovascular Disease.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) has roots in childhood; since CVD begins early, a clear strong case for early education focused on CVD primary prevention exists. Scientists are not traditionally involved in disseminating health knowledge into public education. Similarly, public school teachers typically do not have access to biomedical research that may increase their students' health science literacy.

Development and validation of a performance-based measure of upper extremity functional limitation.

Background And Aims: While the standardized lower extremity physical performance battery (LEPPB) is widely used to measure lower body functional limitation, no corresponding measure has been developed for upper body functional limitation. We combined three standard measures (William's Hand Test, Hand Signature, Functional Reach) to develop an upper extremity physical performance battery (UEPPB) analogous to the LEPPB, and examined its validity.

Methods: We used baseline data from a community-dwelling cohort of 749 Mexican American and European American elders and combined times to complete the William's Hand Board, Hand Signature, and distance on Functional Reach into a single composite measure, using scoring methods analogous to those for the LEPPB.

Potential mediators of ethnic differences in physical activity in older Mexican Americans and European Americans: results from the San Antonio Longitudinal Study of Aging.

Factors were examined that might explain reported ethnic differences in leisure time physical activity (LTPA) between Mexican Americans (MAs) and European Americans (EAs). Data were from a random sample of 749 community-dwelling MAs and EAs, aged 65 and older, who participated in the San Antonio Longitudinal Study of Aging (SALSA) baseline examination. Variables examined included LTPA measured as kilocalories of energy expended per week, contextual variables (age, sex, socioeconomic status (SES), acculturation/structural assimilation), psychosocial measures (self-esteem, mastery, perceived health control), lifestyle variables (fat avoidance, current alcohol drinker, years smoking, body mass index (BMI)), and presence of chronic diseases (diabetes mellitus, angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, stroke, hypertension, arthritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, depression, mild cognitive impairment).

Association between acculturation and structural assimilation and mini-mental state examination-assessed cognitive impairment in older Mexican Americans: findings from the San Antonio Longitudinal Study of Aging.

Older Mexican Americans (MAs) have consistently scored lower on the Folstein Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) than older European Americans (EAs). These lower scores may arise from factors other than those traditionally posited (age and education). Thus, this study examined the association between acculturation and structural assimilation and MMSE-assessed cognitive impairment, taking into account education, income, and other contextual factors.

Do middle school students really have fixed images of elders?

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine whether combinations of characteristics, abstracted from drawings of elders made by middle school students, grouped together to form cohesive perceptions, or stereotypes, of human aging.

Methods: We abstracted 49 characteristics from drawings of elders made by 1,944 students at two middle schools in San Antonio, Texas, at the beginning of the 1998-1999 school year. Correlational and factor analyses were used to determine if there was an underlying structure or grouping to the characteristics.

Evaluation of the mini-mental state examination's internal consistency in a community-based sample of Mexican-American and European-American elders: results from the San Antonio Longitudinal Study of Aging.

This study examined the effect of scoring method, education, and language usage on internal consistency of the Folstein Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Trained bilingual staff administered the MMSE in participants' homes as part of the San Antonio Longitudinal Study of Aging home-based assessment battery. Subjects included 833 community-dwelling Mexican-American (MA) and European-American (EA) elders, aged 65 and older, residing in three socioculturally distinct neighborhoods in San Antonio, Texas.

Sentence completion to assess children's views about aging.

Purpose: Sentence completion exercises require students to give open-ended responses to prompts. The first purpose of this article is to describe the method of sentence completion to assess middle-school children's attitudes and beliefs about aging. The second purpose is to describe the patterns of characteristics that children associate with aging.

Prevalence and severity of urinary incontinence in elderly Mexican-American women.

Objectives: To measure prevalence and characteristics of urinary incontinence in older Mexican-American women.

Design: Cross-sectional analysis of a longitudinal survey of a representative sample of older Mexican Americans.

Setting: Five southwestern states in the United States.

Measuring subclinical disability in older mexican americans.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to develop a comprehensive list of adaptive strategies to prevent disability and use this information to devise a preliminary measure of subclinical disability (state of sustained independence in the presence of latent or manifest functional limitations) suitable for older Mexican Americans.

Method: Semistructured interviews were conducted with 24 community-dwelling Mexican American elders (> or =65 years old) to elicit information about adaptations in performance of daily living tasks (eg, walking, dressing, and shopping) that may indicate presence of subclinical disability. This information was used to construct a quantitative self-report measure of subclinical disability administered to 207 older Mexican Americans.