Robert Fieo, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
The Taub Institute For Research On Alzheimer's Disease And The Aging Brain
630 West 168th Street
New York, NY 10032
Phone: 212-305-2046
Fax: 212-342-1838
E-mail: raf2168@columbia.edu
Research:
My research to date has primarily focused on improving the precision and overall validity of self-report measures used in gerontology to assess health status in older adults. As compared to performance measures (e.g., grip strength or walk time) self-reported functional status has been criticized for its relatively weak face validity and sensitivity to change. However, modern test theory can be applied to self-report scales in an effort to make these criticisms less relevant.Currently I'm investigating how stimulating leisure activities (one of several proxies for cognitive reserve) mediate the relationship between dementia and its clinical expression. Recent investigations into cognitive reserve posit a theoretical inflection point; to the left of this point reserve serves to delay the onset of cognitive decline in healthy older adults, and to the right an accelerated decline in function as a critical threshold is reached in which compensation is no longer tenable. My aim is to develop a more precise measure relating to one's level of involvement in cognitively stimulating activities, and to ultimately improve how we estimate the 'distance' to critical thresholds of cognitive reserve.
Representative Publications:
1. Fieo R and Avlund K. Improving a measure of mobility-related fatigue (the Mob-T Scale) by establishing item intensity. Journal of the American Geriatric Society (In press).
2. Fieo R, Watson R, Deary IJ, Starr JM.Gerontology. A revised activities of daily living/instrumental activities of daily living instrument increases interpretive power: theoretical application for functional tasks exercise. 2010;56(5):483-90.
3. Watson R, van der Ark LA, Lin LC, Fieo R, Deary IJ, Meijer RR. Item response theory: How Mokken scaling can be used in clinical practice. J Clin Nurs. 2011.
4. Fieo RA, Austin EJ, Starr JM, Deary IJ Calibrating ADL-IADL scales to improve measurement accuracy and to extend the disability construct into the preclinical range: a systematic review. BMC Geriatr. 2011