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Contact Information 
Institute for Aging Research
1200 Centre Street
Boston, MA 02131
Phone: 617-971-5332
Fax: 617-971-5309
email: FrancesYang@hsl.harvard.edu
Education
| 1999 |
B.S.G. |
University of Southern California
Leonard Davis School of Gerontology |
| 2004 |
Ph.D. |
University of Southern California
Leonard Davis School of Gerontology
Andrus Gerontology Research Center |
| 2005 |
Post-doctorate |
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Harvard Medical School
Department of Psychiatry |
Research Interests and Teaching Activities
Frances M. Yang, Ph.D., is a faculty member at the Institute for Aging Research, Harvard Medical School, and Brigham and Women's Hospital's Department of Psychiatry. Currently, she is conducting research on item response theory by examining psychometric properties of mental health measures for older minorities with vascular disease.
She completed the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Institute on Aging (NIA) National Research Service Award (NRSA) Harvard Medical School T32 Translational Research in Aging Training Fellowship. The title of her project was: "Examining Measurement Differences in Depression: The Cultural and Vascular Effects in Older Americans." She is using item response theory (IRT) to detect differential item functioning (DIF) in depression measures due to cultural differences and medical conditions, specifically cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases and risk factors. She draws from her interdisciplinary background in gerontology to combine theories on social-psychology of cultural experiences and the biomedical model of vascular depression hypothesis.
She was awarded the 2007 Young Investigator Award from NARSAD: The Mental Health Research Association to study early detection of depression in minority older adults with chronic diseases. Yang is one of 222 early-career scientists in the world to become the principal investigator (PI) to advance mental health research. She will develop a culturally- and clinically-sensitive diagnostic screen for depression to improve detection among minority older adults with cardiovascular diseases. NARSAD is the world's leading donor-supported organization dedicated to funding research on psychiatric disorders.
She was also the PI of an NIA/Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research (RCMAR) Junior Investigator Collaborative Pilot grant, entitled "Detecting Differential Item Functioning in Cognitive Measures for Spanish and English-Speaking Older Adults by Acculturation Orientation and Language of Test Administration." This study seeks to identify DIF, a particular form of measurement bias or measurement non-invariance, attributable to socio-cultural factors on measures of neuropsychological function using the Spanish and English Neurological Assessment Scales (SENAS) dataset. This cross-RCMAR-site study will examine different methods of IRT under three different DIF approaches: PARSCALE/DIFdetect, MULTILOG/DFIT, and Mplus/MIMIC. The socio-cultural factors include acculturation, language fluency, place of birth, and date of immigration. Differences and similarities found across DIF detection approaches will be described (as a gold-standard to determine false-positive and/or false-negative errors is not currently available). The substantive issue that motivates this proposal concerns the relationship between socio-cultural factors and performance on neuropsychological tests, and how differences in measurement properties impact the prediction of clinical states. Broadly, this study concerns the relationship of socio-cultural factors to the internal and external validity of the SENAS scales. She is working with collaborators from Columbia University, Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), University of California San Francisco (UCSF), and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Dr. Yang leads tutorial sessions the Clinical Epidemiology course and seminar leader for the Role of Discovery in Medicine Course at Harvard Medical School for first-year medical students, mentored American Federation for Aging Research medical student scholars, as well as undergraduate scholars from the Harvard Medical School Project Success Research Program. She has served as national chair of the Gerontological Society of America Emerging Scholar and Professionals Organization with 1,300 student members, Committee for Cultural Competence in Medical Education at Harvard Medical School, and Co-director of the Center of Excellence for Minority Aging and Health Research at the Brigham and Women's Hospital. She has received national recognition for her research through the AARP/GSA Minority Doctoral Fellowship, National Institute on Aging Summer Institute on Aging Fellowshiop, and the National Institute on Mental Health Summer Research Institute Fellowship.
Selected Publications
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Yang FM , Jones RN. Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression scale (CES-D) item response bias found with Mantel-Haenszel method was successfully replicated using latent variable modeling . J Clin Epidem 2007; 60(11): 1195-200
- Yang FM , Cazorla-Lancaster, Y, Jones RN. Are there within group differences in depression among older Hispanics? J Gerontol Psy Sci 2007, in press.
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Inouye SK, Zhang Y, Jones RN, Kiely D, Yang F , & Marcantonio ER. Risk Factors for Delirium at Discharge: Development and Validation of a Predictive Model. Ann Int Med 2007; 167(13):1406-13.
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Jones RN, Yang FM, Zhang Y, Jones RN, Kiely D, Marcantonio ER, & Inouye SK. Does Educational Attainment Contribute to Risk for Delirium? A Potential Role for Cognitive Reserve. J Gerontol Med Sci 2006; 61(12):1307-1311.
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Silverstein M, Gans, D, and Yang, FM. Filial support to aging parents: the role of norms and needs. Journal of Family Issues 2006; 27(8):1-18.
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Yang FM , Levkoff SE. Ageism and minority populations: strength in frailty. Generations 2005; 2005; 19(3):42-48.
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Levkoff SE, Yang FM, Liptzin B. Delirium: the importance of subsyndromal states. Primary Psych 2004; 11(11):40-44.
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Yang, F. State pharmacy assistance programs as policy innovations. Southwest J on Aging 2002; 18:20-23.
Funding Sources
- NIH/NIA Understanding Disparities in Mental Status Assessment Supplement (PI: Jones) 8/01/06-12/31/08 Assistant Research Scientist
- NIH/NIA Resource Center for Minority Aging Research Collaborative Pilot Project (PI: Yang) 2/24/06-2/23/07
Achievements
- Detecting Differential Item Functioning in Cognitive Measures for Spanish- and English-Speaking Older Adults by Acculturation Orientation and Language of Test Administration.
- NARSAD: The Mental Health Research Association Young Investigator Award (PI: Yang) 07/01/07-06/30/09
- Developing a Culturally- and Clinically-Sensitive Depression Instrument to Improve Screening among Minority Older Adults with Cardiovascular Disease
- Livingston Fellowship Award, Harvard Medical School, Department of Psychiatry (PI: Yang) 07/01/07-06/30/08
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