Forde_SOW_3 Surveys_6-6-23.pdf

STATEMENT OF WORK

National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)

Nationally Representative Surveys on Psychosocial Stressors and Cardiovascular-Related Outcomes among African Diaspora Populations in the Caribbean and U.S.

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background Information

The NIMHD Division of Intramural Research (NIMHD DIR) plans and directs the Institute’s clinical, behavioral, epidemiologic, and population health intramural research programs. The NIMHD DIR conducts research that seeks to identify the factors that contribute to health disparities, develop interventions to reduce these disparities, promote the health and well-being of racial/ethnic minority populations and raise awareness of numerous health disparities, including cardiovascular-related health outcomes.

There is a high burden of cardiovascular-related outcomes (such as hypertension, diabetes, congestive heart failure, coronary heart disease, stroke and chronic kidney disease) among the African Diaspora. However, few studies have explored the heterogeneity of experiences among disaggregated groups representing this Diaspora, such as African American adults and Caribbean adults of African descent. There is also limited research on the social stressors and cultural factors that may be contributing to cardiovascular-related outcomes among Caribbean adults of African descent living in the U.S. and Caribbean region.

Additionally, few studies have explored whether the impact of social stressors on cardiovascular-related outcomes among these populations differ across generations.

Cross-national, cross-ethnic and cross-generational studies will provide insight into the experiences of Caribbean adults of African descent within and outside the Caribbean region, as well as uncover whether these experiences contribute to similarities and differences of cardiovascular-related outcomes within and across Caribbean and African American ethnic groups within the African Diaspora.

1.2 Purpose/Objectives

The purpose of this task order is to identify a contractor that will provide specialized services to support NIMHD in screening and recruiting populations of African descent to participate in 3 studies: (1) A cross-national study exploring the social determinants of health among Caribbean-born adults of African descent in the Caribbean and U.S., (2) Experiences of psychosocial stressors and the health of African American and Caribbean adults of African descent in the U.S., and (3) A cross-generational analysis of dyads of Black adult children and their parents.

The objectives of each of these studies are to: (1) identify sources of stress, such as discrimination and neighborhood social environment, (2) investigate the similarities and differences in the prevalence of cardiovascular-related outcomes across African Diaspora populations, (3) examine the impact of these stressors on cardiovascular health, (4) assess the mediating factors linking stressors to adverse cardiovascular-related outcomes and whether they differ within and across African Diaspora populations, and (5) explore the moderating factors that may inform interventions to mitigate the health effects of stressors experienced by African Diaspora populations.

1.3 Scope

This project will consist of three separate 30-minute surveys to investigate the effects of stressors on cardiovascular-related health outcomes among African Diaspora populations in the U.S. The contractor will utilize their existing consumer panels to invite respondents meeting the eligibility criteria specified by NIMHD DIR to complete the following 3 online surveys.

Survey 1: A cross-national study exploring the social determinants of health among Caribbean-born adults of African descent in the Caribbean and U.S.

The survey will be administered to 5000 Caribbean-born adults of African descent (aged 18 years or older) who reside in the U.S. or Caribbean region and meet the following eligibility criteria:

• Caribbean-born adults of African descent residing in the Caribbean region (n=2500) must be born in one of the 20 countries that are members of Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) [Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos] to non-U.S.-citizen parents, self-identity as Black or of African descent (inclusive of single-race, multi-racial), and who currently reside in one of the 20 CARICOM countries

• Caribbean-born adults of African descent residing in the U.S. (n=2500) must be born in one of the 20 countries that are members of CARICOM [Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos] to non-U.S. citizen parents, self-identity as Black or of African descent (inclusive of single-race , multi-racial), and currently reside in the U.S.

• Participants in the U.S. and Caribbean should be matched to sampling frames on age, sex, years of education, and country of origin

• Representation in the U.S. and Caribbean should include evenly distributed Caribbean countries (e.g., the sample should not include 80% of participants from one Caribbean country and 20% from other countries)

• Caribbean-born participants of African descent residing in the US. should be selected from high-density Caribbean areas in the U.S. (e.g., New York, New Jersey, Florida, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, and Washington, DC) to be representative

• The Caribbean-born population of African descent living in the U.S. should also be diverse with respect to length of stay in the U.S. (e.g., recent immigrants, longer stay immigrants)

• Participants must agree to be re-contacted for participation in follow-up surveys initiated by NIMHD DIR

Survey 2: Psychosocial stressors and the health of African American and Caribbean adults of African descent in the U.S.

The survey will be administered to 2000 African American adults (aged 18 years or older) and 4000 Caribbean adults of African descent (aged 18 years or older) who reside in the U.S.

and meet the following eligibility criteria:

• African American adults (n=2000) must be born in the U.S. to U.S. citizen parents and must be descendants of slaves brought to the U.S. with no direct ancestral ties to the Caribbean, Latin America or Africa

• Caribbean-born adults of African descent (n=2000) must be born in one of the 20 countries that are members CARICOM [Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos] to non- U.S. citizen parents, self-identity as Black or of African descent (inclusive of single-race , multi-racial), and currently reside in the U.S.

• U.S.-born (n=2000) Caribbean adults of African descent must be born in the U.S., self-identify as Caribbean (excluding Latino/Hispanic) [of West Indian or Caribbean descent or had a parent or at least one grandparent who was born in a CARICOM country], self-identity as Black or of African descent (inclusive of single-race , multi-racial), and currently reside in the U.S.

• Representation in the U.S. should include evenly distributed Caribbean countries (e.g., the sample should not include 80% of participants from one Caribbean country and 20% from other countries)

• Caribbean participants (Caribbean-born and U.S.-born) of African descent should be selected from high-density Caribbean areas in the U.S. (e.g., New York, New Jersey, Florida, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, and Washington, DC) to be representative

• The Caribbean-born population of African descent should also be diverse with respect to length of stay in the U.S. (e.g., recent immigrants, longer stay immigrants)

Survey 3: A cross-generational analysis of dyads of Black adult children and their parents The survey will be administered to the following 1000 cross-generational dyads of parents (n=1000) and their adult children (n=1000) who are all aged 18 years or older:

Parent (n=1000) Adult Child (n=1000) African American (n=250) African American (n=250) Caribbean-born (n=250) Caribbean-born (n=250) Caribbean-born (n=250) U.S.-born Caribbean (n=250) U.S.-born Caribbean (n=250) U.S.-born Caribbean (n=250)

Participants must meet the following eligibility criteria:

• African American parent or child must be born in the U.S. to U.S. citizen parents and must be descendants of slaves brought to the U.S. with no direct ancestral ties to the Caribbean, Latin America or Africa

• Caribbean-born parent or child must be born in one of the 20 countries that are members of CARICOM [Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos] to non-U.S.

citizen parents, self-identity as Black or of African descent (inclusive of single-race , multi-racial), and currently reside in the U.S.

• U.S.-born parent or child must be born in the U.S. and self-identify as Caribbean (excluding Latino/Hispanic) [of West Indian or Caribbean descent or had a parent or at least one grandparent who was born in a CARICOM country]

• The dyads should be evenly distributed across same-sex and mixed-sex dyads (e.g., same sex: father-son, mother-daughter; mixed sex: father-daughter, mother-son)

• Representation in the U.S. should include evenly distributed Caribbean countries (e.g., the sample should not include 80% of participants from one Caribbean country and 20% from other countries)

• Caribbean participants (Caribbean-born and U.S.-born) of African descent residing in the US. should be selected from high-density Caribbean areas in the U.S. (e.g., New York, New Jersey, Florida, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, and Washington, DC) to be representative

• The Caribbean-born population of African descent should also be diverse with respect to length of stay in the U.S. (e.g., recent immigrants, longer stay immigrants)

The Contractor will act independently and not as an agent of the government to furnish all necessary services, qualified personnel, materials, equipment and facilities not otherwise provided by the government to successfully recruit participants meeting the abovementioned eligibility criteria and to perform the specific tasks listed below for each of the 3 surveys.

2.0 REQUIREMENTS

2.1 Tasks

The contractor shall have prior experience working with the Federal Government, understand Federal Government policies, procedures, contracting, and billing processes, and have experience with cost control management and conducting surveys. Specifically, the contractor shall perform the following specialized tasks:

Task 1.0-Participant recruitment and enrollment

• Utilize cost-effective and methodologically rigorous sampling approach to recruit a representative sample (African American adults in the U.S., Caribbean-born adults of African descent in the U.S., U.S.-born Caribbean adults of African descent in the U.S. and Caribbean-born adults of African descent in the 10 CARICOM Caribbean countries) (a non-randomly selected pool of respondents consisting of existing panel members is preferred)

• Provide data collection plan to NIMHD DIR to discuss and confirm survey quotas, screeners, and quality control items (e.g., time completed, attention filters)

• Obtain informed consent from participants meeting the eligibility criteria provided by NIMHD DIR

• Meet the recruitment target sample sizes for each group as specified by NIMHD

DIR

• Provide daily updates to NIMHD DIR on data collection during fielding period (including, but not limited to number of potential participants invited, running totals of participants recruited within each specified target group who provided qualifying completed data)

• Have the capacity to re-contact respondents to participate in follow-up studies initiated by the NIMHD DIR

Task 2.0-Survey Initiation and Data Collection

• Program and host the survey provided by NIMHD DIR (within 3 weeks of receipt of the survey content from NIMHD DIR)

• Launch the survey for data collection

• Manage the overall data collection process

• Create and test survey quotas, screeners, and related logic, and approve the survey prior to launching to the targeted respondents

• Set up the technical integration and testing with strategic online panel partners

• Invite respondents to complete the online survey in return for incentives/cash honorarium

• Agree that partial completes will not count towards the total completes requested by the NIMHD DIR

• Distribute the incentives/cash honorarium to participants and retain receipts

• Monitor data collection and send updates to NIMHD DIR during online survey fielding period

• Protect the identities of participants by assigning unique codes to each participant so that recipients of the data are not able to link the unique code to the participant

• Comply with applicable laws, rules, and regulations, including applicable data privacy laws (the Contractor as the data provider, and NIMHD DIR as the data recipient)

Task 3.0: Data Management, Distribution and Data Documentation

• Furnish a cleaned dataset with de-identified completed survey data, as well as population weights and data documentation (e.g., description of any data formatting, response rates) to NIMHD DIR via secure NIH email or a secured data server (the final mode of delivery will be discussed with NIMHD DIR).

• Provide methodology/technical reports, codebooks and other relevant documents to NIH DIR via secure NIH email or on a secured server

• Format the data for Statistical Analysis Software (SAS) or formats that are readable by SAS

• Inform NIMHD DIR if the data will be destroyed or edited

• Confirm that the data obtained through this scope of work will not be shared with third parties that are not listed in this scope of work without NIMHD DIR approval

• Agree to not publish articles/reports using the data obtained through this scope of work

Task 4.0-Project Management and Administration Contract Management:

• Provide for the overall management, integration and coordination of all contract activities

• Provide technical and administrative infrastructure to ensure the efficient planning, initiation, implementation and timely completion of the project under this contract and effective communications with the Contracting Officer

• Provide a Project Manager who is responsible for the overall project management and communications, tracking, monitoring and reporting on project status and progress, and recommending modifications to project requirements and timelines

Meetings

• Participate in a one-day Contract Initiation Meeting (orientation regarding contract procedures) with the Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR), CO (Contracting Officer) and other personnel designated by the COR, to be held by web conferencing (within 10 days of award of the contract)

• Attend a kick-off meeting between the Contractor and DIR investigator where NIMHD DIR will provide the survey contents to the Contractor (within 2 weeks of award date)

• Maintain regular weekly (or more frequent if necessary) communications with NIMHD DIR through telephone, video conference, and emails to provide updates during the enrollment, data collection, data cleaning and data distribution phases of the study

2.2 Period of Performance

Period Start Date End Date Duration (months)

Base Period 09/29/2023 09/28/2024 12 months

Optional Year 1 9/29/2024 09/28/2025 12 months

3.0 GOVERNMENT FURNISHED PROPERTY

No government-furnished property will be provided to the contractor