Rapid Assessment Method for Older People (RAM-OP): A Manual

HelpAge International, VALID International, and Brixton Health, with financial assistance from the Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF), have developed a Rapid Assessment Method for Older People (RAM-OP) that provides accurate and reliable estimates of the needs of older people. The method uses simple procedures, in a short time frame (i.e. about two weeks including training, data collection, data entry, and data analysis), and at considerably lower cost than other methods. The RAM-OP method is based on the following principles:

• Use of a familiar “household survey” design employing a two-stage cluster sample design optimised to allow the use of a small primary sample (m ≥ 16 clusters) and a small overall (n ≥ 192) sample.

• Assessment of multiple dimensions of need in older people (including prevalence of global, moderate and severe acute malnutrition) using, whenever possible, standard and well-tested indicators and question sets.

• Data analysis performed using modern computer-intensive methods to allow estimates of indicator levels to be made with useful precision using a small sample size.

This is an R-based and Quarto-powered repository containing source code for the online version of the RAM-OP manual published by HelpAge International.

This repository is initially meant to document and track the conversion of the original printed manual into an online version. However, since there are no plans by HelpAge International to continue to support the development and use of the method, this repository now aims to ensure that the previously released manual and related tools for RAM-OP continue to be available and accessible online to the general public. Furthermore, this repository is being used to continually update the manual and to document ongoing development of the method and its related tooling under the RapidSurveys project supported by the Oxford iHealth initiative of the MSc in International Health and Tropical Medicine of the Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford.

Reproducibility

System dependencies

This project requires the following system dependencies:

• Quarto

This project uses the Quarto open-source scientific and technical publishing system. Instructions on how to download and install quarto can be found here.

• TeX

This project requires TeX for rendering PDF. It is recommended to use TinyTex for this purpose. Quarto provides a utility to install TinyTex via the following command on terminal:

quarto install tinytex

• Google Chrome or Chromium

This project requires either Google Chrome or Chromium browser to be able produce the PDF version of the book. Instructions on how to download and install Google Chrome can be found here. Instructions on how to download and install Chromium can be found here.

R version

This project is built using R 4.5.2. To manage R versions, it is recommended to use rig - an R installation manager - to be able to install multiple versions of R and switch between them as needed.

R package dependencies

This project uses the {renv} framework to record R package dependencies and versions. Packages and versions used are recorded in renv.lock and code used to manage dependencies is in the renv directory and other files in the root project directory.

On starting an R session in the working directory of this repository, first run

renv::restore()

to install R package dependencies.

This is only done once when the project is being initiated for the first time by a user.

Rendering the book

To preview the book through a local server, issue the following command on Terminal:

quarto preview

This will render and serve the online book through a local server on your computer and launch a browser to preview.

To close the preview, type CTRL + C on Terminal.

To render the book, issue the following command on Terminal:

quarto render

This will render the book locally on your machine and store the online book files in a folder in your working directory named _site.

License

The book outputs are released under a CC-BY-4.0 license.

Source code developed to produce the online book are released under a GPL-3.0 license.

Citation

Citing the book

If you refer to/use the online book for your work or research, please cite the book using the metadata available from the CITATION.cff under the preferred-citation tag.

Citing the source code

If you use the source code developed to produce the online book, please use the software metadata found in CITATION.cff.

Community guidelines

Feedback, comments, and content requests are welcome; file issues or seek support here. If you would like to contribute to the development of this book, please see our contributing guidelines.

This project is released with a Contributor Code of Conduct. By participating in this project you agree to abide by its terms.