Project Summary The Data Management & Methods Core (DM&M), or Core C, will centrally unify and serve all four proposed research projects as well as the pilot projects funded by Core B by providing the data management backbone and methodological expertise for each proposed research program project. Core C will continue to work with project investigators to build analytic files for each project, construct and test independent and dependent variables that are conceptually and theoretically appropriate for use across projects, compile data for dissemination, and develop statistical methods specific to the complex assessment and administrative data utilized in the projects. The specific aims are to 1) assemble project data and develop methods for tracking and cleaning longitudinal data; 2) create uniform, core measures for use in project analyses; 3) provide analytic and statistical support to all projects' execution of their specific aims; 4) develop novel methods of evaluating cognitive functional status; 5) apply and extend alternate approaches to testing the effects of policies on patient outcomes and to address selection bias; and 6) create measures and disseminate data on the project website. Core C is at the heart of the overlap of the projects since all rely upon the same core of longitudinal Medicare claims and beneficiary assessment data, matched to Medicare beneficiaries’ enrollment files. The new methods work enhances and builds upon prior work integrating Bayesian imputation methods to cross-walk cognitive function measures across Medicare assessments. Methods work will also extend the cross-temporal matching techniques developed by the Core PI. All four projects rely on these new method enhancements to construct measures of cognitive function for use in cohort selection and stratification and to apply the cross-temporal matching model. Core C will integrate Medicare data thru 2018 into our existing 2000-2015data structure, construct at least three to four new analysis file programs for each of the projects, support funded pilot project investigators and continue to update the information on our web site and disseminate state aggregates to national websites maintained by partners ranging from the Commonwealth Fund, to AARP and to trade associations in the NH industry.