Gary Langer and Julie E. Phelan led a four-hour workshop on best practices in monitoring and evaluation of civic engagement programs in developing nations today at the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) in Washington, D.C. Our presentation included first principles in monitoring and evaluation, experimental design including pre- and post-testing and the use of control/treatment groups, considerations in field administration, questionnaire design and statistical modeling techniques including construction of indices with alpha testing, linear regression including variable coding and analysis of covariates.

The Institute of Medicine in Washington, D.C., has cited our work for Blue Shield of California Foundation in a four-page Meeting Summary of its February 2013 Roundtable on Value- and Science-Driven Health Care. The summary quotes and reproduces charts from a presentation at the Roundtable by Gary Langer, discussing our 2012 reports for BSCF (here and here) on the key role of connectedness and continuity in patient-provider relationships.

Gary Langer appeared on Bloomberg TV with hosts Sara Eisen and Tom Keene today, discussing the state of consumer confidence as measured in the weekly Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, produced by Langer Research Associates.

Anxiety-fueled avoidance, lack of information and inexperience with long-term care are key impediments to Americans planning for their care needs as they grow older, according to a report produced by Langer Research Associates and released today by The SCAN Foundation.

The in-depth analysis, based on a Foundation-sponsored survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, explores pathways to planning for long-term care by evaluating the motivators of preparing for aging needs – key information for the public and for policy makers as they seek to understand and encourage long-term care planning for the nation’s growing population of older adults.

The SCAN Foundation, based in Long Beach, California, is the nation’s only non-profit devoted exclusively to long-term care issues. The Langer Research report, “Pathways to Progress in Planning for Long-Term Care,” is available on its website.

We’ve updated our briefing paper on using social media to estimate public opinion, including new details on socialbots as reported in The New York Times. See our report here, and our previous briefing paper on opt-in online panels here.

Americans age 40 and older with a prescription for a chronic condition get a troubling C+ grade for their medication adherence, according to a national survey released today by the National Community Pharmacists Association.

In addition to establishing non-adherence levels, the survey, produced for the NCPA by Langer Research Associates, identifies the key predictors of patients’ compliance with their medication instructions, including having a personal connection with pharmacy staff, affordability, continuity in health care, presence of side effects and awareness of the importance of taking medications as directed. The study proposes steps for pharmacists and health care providers to seek to reduce non-adherence, given its costs and health risks alike.

See the full report here.

The SCAN Foundation today released our analysis of a statewide survey of Californians’ attitudes on long-term care, finding state residents age 40 and up more concerned than their counterparts nationally about a range of aging issues and more supportive of government-led efforts to address long-term care options.

The state sample was produced by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research as part of its national survey on the topic, funded by the Foundation with Langer Research Associates consulting on the project. The Associated Press in April covered national results of the AP-NORC study; our new report contrasts attitudes in California with those nationally. A further, more detailed study by Langer Research modeling the predictors of planning for long-term care will be forthcoming.

Gary Langer presented on questionnaire design today at “Meet the Masters,” a daylong training session for survey researchers sponsored by the New York Chapter of the American Association for Public Opinion Research. See the presentation here.

Pickup of our survey with Kase Capital on J.C. Penney continues; latest is coverage in today’s Business Day section of The New York Times.

Langer Research Associates staff will participate in several presentations next week at the annual meetings of the American Association for Public Opinion Research and the World Association for Public Opinion Research in Boston, on subjects ranging from politics to survey methodology to international development.

• Julie E. Phelan and Gary Langer will give a paper on their evaluation of whether to adjust a long-term trend-based survey, the 27-year-old Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, to include cell-phone and Spanish-language interviews. Links: paper and presentation.
• Greg Holyk, with Damla Ergun, Langer, Phelan and Seth Brohinsky and Dean Williams of Abt SRBI, will present on the continuation of the 2012 ABC News/Washington Post presidential election tracking poll in the aftermath of tropical storm Sandy. Link: presentation.
• Langer will present assessment data on civic engagement in Afghanistan produced in support of a USAID-funded program by Counterpart International (link: presentation), and separately will present polling analysis of the 2012 presidential election produced by Langer Research Associates for ABC News (link: presentation).
• Holyk will serve as a panelist at a WAPOR session on perceptions and implications of the ‘pivot to Asia’ in U.S. foreign policy.
• Led by Eran Ben-Porath of Social Science Research Solutions, Ergun, Langer and Holyk, with Jon Cohen and Scott Clement of Capital Insight, will offer a presentation on context effects in favorability questions in the 2012 presidential contest. Link: presentation.

Link: Main page for all presentations.