srinath K

Abt Associates Inc. RFP-NIH-NICHD-DESPR-2007-12

Name: KADABA P. SRINATH

Profession: Principal Associate/Scientist

Years Associated with Firm: 11 years

Key Qualifications

Over 20 years of experience in designing large-scale sample surveys. Expertise in all methodological aspects of sample surveys including construction of sampling frames, stratification, sample size determination, allocation, and sample selection. Experience working on various problems relating to estimation and variance estimation, including small-area estimation.

Education

Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Biostatistics.

M.S., Mysore University, India, Statistics.

B.S., Mysore University, India, Statistics.

Relevant Professional Experience

Experience with Abt Associates Inc.

2005–present Senior Sampling Statistician- School Lunch and Breakfast Study-II. This is a national survey of school districts and schools to assess the adequacy of meal reimbursement rates in the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs. The sampling design involves the selection of schools districts with unequal probability and selecting schools within selected school districts. (Client: Food and Nutrition Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

2005 –present Senior Sampling Statistician. Healthy Behavior in School-Age Children (HBSC) Survey. This is a national survey of students in grades 6 to 10, including an oversample of minority children. The complex multistage design involves school districts, schools, classes, and students. (Client: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.)

2002 –2004 Senior Sampling Statistician. State and Local Area Integrated Telephone Survey (SLAITS) National Survey of Children’s Health. This project was conducted in 50 states and the District of Columbia, via the State and Local Area Integrated Telephone Survey (SLAITS) mechanism. The study assessed children’s health and well-being, health care coverage and access, and the extent to which children have a medical home. Other topics included school performance and activities, family functioning, and neighborhood characteristics. Responsible for the selection of the sample and for determining sampling weights.

2001–2004 Senior Sampling Statistician. SLAITS National Asthma Survey. The SLAITS National Asthma Survey was conducted in 2003 using a national sample as well as samples in selected states. The information collected in the project will be used to produce asthma prevalence rates for adults and children. The data will also examine how various environmental and behavioral factors contribute to the development and management of asthma. Responsible for sample size determination, and sample selection and weighting.

1999–2004 Senior Sampling Statistician. National Immunization Survey. This large random-digit-dialed telephone survey, which began in 1994, has become the primary source of information on vaccination coverage among children aged 19 to 35 months in the U.S. Its quarterly data yield annualized estimates for the 50 states and for 28 metropolitan areas of the U.S. National estimates appear semiannually in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Abt associated conducted the NIS from its inception in 1994 through 2005. The survey annually screened approximately 1 million households, and completes interviews for approximately 31,500 age-eligible children. With the consent of parents and guardians the NIS also contacted the children’s immunization providers (by mail) to request a complete vaccination history from the child’s medical records. This phase of the survey obtained adequate provider data for about 22,000 children per year. Data from providers are critical to producing accurate estimates of vaccination coverage. The household and provider data formed the basis for a public-use file, accompanied by documentation for data users, for each year of the survey. Responsible for complex sample design, weighting and variance estimation, and for methodological research. Team leader in developing a methodology to correct for noncoverage bias in telephone surveys through a weighting scheme that uses information on interruptions in telephone service. Addressed the problems of using dual frames for sampling children between 19 and 35 months; adjusting for noncoverage of nontelephone households; and sampling from dual frames to reduce the cost of sampling from RDD frames.

2002–2003 Senior Sampling Statistician, Integrated Study of School Meal Costs and Outcomes: A Design, Cost and Feasibility Plan. The Economic Research Service, USDA, contracted with the team of Abt Associates Inc. and Mathematica Policy Research Inc. to design an integrated study of USDA school meal programs and to assess the cost and feasibility of such a study. Such an integrated study would collect a broad range of data in a nationally-representative sample of School Food Authorities (SFAs) and schools, including five major domains: policies and practices of schools and SFAs affecting school meal programs; characteristics of meals as offered and as served; costs and revenues of providing school meals; student participation and satisfaction; and students’ dietary intakes and other student/family outcomes. The study would also collect data on the demographic characteristics of participating and non-participating SFAs, schools, and students. The design study will produce a sampling plan, a data collection plan and instruments, an analysis plan, and cost estimates for the integrated study. Data collection procedures and instruments will be pretested. The project team will prepare packages for approval by the Office of Management and Budget and the Educational Information Advisory Committee. (Client: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.) Responsible for developing sampling design.

2000–2002 Senior Sampling Statistician. SLAITS Children with Special Health Care Needs Survey. This survey project was conducted in 50 states and the District of Columbia. The information collected provides prevalence data for children with special health care needs in the United States, and makes it possible to assess the impact of these special health care needs. Data collection for the project yielded 38,866 detailed interviews regarding children with special health care needs (750 in each state and Washington, D.C.), and health insurance coverage data for 215,000 children. Responsible for selecting sample size, sample allocation, sampling weights, and estimation.

Other Professional Experience

1987–1995 Section Chief, Methodology Division, Statistics Canada. Statistics Canada is an internationally recognized statistical agency of the Government of Canada. Work included directing, supervising, and working with a group of 14 to 15 methodologists on various aspects of sample surveys, which included general survey planning, creation and maintenance of sampling frames, sample design, data collection, adjustments for nonresponse, estimation including variance estimation and small area estimation, evaluation of data quality, and providing advice on data analysis. Also provided sampling methods for the use of administrative data.

Papers, Publications, Presentations

“A Dual Frame Sampling Design for a RDD Survey that Screens for a Rare Population,” 2004 Proceedings of the Survey Research Methods Section of the American Statistical Association. (with Mike Battaglia and Meena Khare).

“Adjustments for Nontelephone Bias in Random-Digit-Dialing Surveys,” Statistics in Medicine, 2003;22: 1611-1626

(with Marty Frankel, David Hoaglin, Michael Battaglia and Robert Wright)

“Balancing Cost and Mean Squared Error in RDD Telephone Surveys: The National Immunization Survey,” 2001 Proceedings of the Survey Research Methods Section of the American Statistical Association

“Sample Allocation to Strata when Sample Selection is through Screening a Larger Sample,” 1999 Proceedings of the Survey Research Methods Section, Alexandria, VA. American Statistical Association

“Reducing Nontelephone Bias in RDD Surveys,” 1999 Proceedings of the Survey Research Methods Section, Alexandria, VA: American Statistical Association. (With M. Frankel, M. Battaglia, D.Hoaglin, P. Smith, and R.Wright)

“Use of Data on Interruptions in Telephone Service for Noncoverage Adjustment,” 1998 Proceedings of the Survey Research Methods Section, Alexandria, VA: American Statistical Association, 290-295 (with M. Frankel, T. Ezzati-Rice, R. Wright)

“Sample Allocation and Selection Methods for Oversampling Subpopulations,” Proceedings of the Survey Research Methods Section, American Statistical Association Meetings, 1996.

"Sampling Methods for Repeated Business Surveys," in Business Survey Methods, Eds. Brenda Cox et al. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1995, pp.171-183 (with R. Carpenter).

"Problems Associated with Designing Sub-Annual Business Surveys," Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, October 1993, Volume 11, Number 4. (with M.A. Hidiroglou).

"Two-Phase Sampling of Tax Records for Business Surveys," Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, October 1993, Volume 11, Number 4. (With J. Armstrong and C. Block).

"Sample Rotation and Estimation in the Survey of Employment, Payroll and Hours,” Survey Methodology, June 1991, Vol.17, No.1 (with Schipou-Kratina).

"Estimation of Level and Change Using Current Preliminary Data," in Panel Surveys eds. Kasprzyk, Duncan, Kalton and Singh, John Wiley & Sons, 1989, pp. 457-479. (With J. N. K. Rao and B. Quenneville).

Memberships

Elected Member, International Statistical Institute.

Member, American Statistical Association.

Use or disclosure of data contained on these pages is subject to the restriction on the cover sheet of this proposal

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