ENAR DataFest Submission

We are seeking ENAR Student members, who are degree candidates at an accredited institution in any term during 2023-24 academic year to participate in the inaugural ENAR 2024 DataFest event. Student teams can include 1-4 members and will work with a curated dataset from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) to answer an important scientific question related to blood pressure control.

Up to six submissions will be selected to give 5-minute presentations at a February web-ENAR. Among these, the top four teams will receive individual team member certificates, a joint cash prize of $500, and an invitation for a 20-minute presentation as part of the ENAR DataFest Invited Session. The team with the most outstanding final presentation will receive the ENAR DataFest Award, which includes an additional $500 prize.

Eligibility

To be eligible, a student team must include 1-4 individuals who are all ENAR members, degree candidates at an accredited institution in any term during 2023-24 academic year, and able to present their project during both a February web-ENAR and the ENAR Spring Meeting, March 10-13, 2024, in Baltimore, Maryland. Teams will work with a curated dataset from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) to answer an important scientific question related to blood pressure control. Teams will submit a GitHub repository that includes (1) a maximum 5-page report with up to 2 figures and 2 tables, (2) a 5-minute video presentation, and (3) associated reproducible code base. The statistical analysis should consider a problem, issue or policy question relevant to the problem statement (see below).

All required materials for ENAR DataFest must be received by the ENAR Business Office, including the electronic submission of the manuscript and video presentation through www.enar.org, by 11:59 p.m. ET January 17th, 2024. Only complete submissions that meet the eligibility requirements, follow the described guidelines, and are received by January 17th will be considered.

DataFest Project Summary

Problem statement: Controlling blood pressure (BP) reduces the risk for cardiovascular disease. However, the prevalence of BP control (i.e., systolic BP < 140 and diastolic BP < 90) among US adults with hypertension has decreased since 2013. We invite teams to analyze publicly available data from US adults to help identify potential causes or correlates of worsening BP control among US adults with hypertension over the past decade, as this may allow for development of effective interventions to help control BP and prevent cardiovascular disease.

Description: Data from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) containing information about demographics, blood pressure levels, hypertension status, antihypertensive medication usage, and co-morbidities for a sample of 59,799 noninstitutionalized US adults collected between 1999 and 2020.

Availability: The data can be downloaded from GitHub or accessed via the cardioStatsUSA R package. For both the file and information about the R package, see https://github.com/jhs-hwg/cardioStatsUSA.

Accessing additional NHANES data: We highly recommend downloading additional NHANES data from https://wwwn.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/, and merging it with the data linked above, but this is not a requirement.

Documentation: For a detailed description of all variables in the data, see https://jhs-hwg.github.io/cardioStatsUSA/reference/nhanes_data.html.

Interactive exploration: A shiny application has been created to help explore hypertension statistics for US adults using these data. The application is available here: https://bcjaeger.shinyapps.io/nhanesShinyBP/

For more details on the data and the shiny application, see the supporting paper https://doi.org/10.1161/hypertensionaha.123.20900.

Guidelines for DataFest Preparation

Please use the following Guidelines Checklist to confirm your submission is complete before submitting for participation in the ENAR DataFest. If you do not meet these criteria, your project may be disqualified. Out of respect for all teams, NO EXCEPTIONS to the eligibility criteria or submission deadlines will be made. Please read these details carefully and plan ahead! If you have questions about DataFest, please email enar@enar.org and include DataFest in the subject line.

To be considered complete:

Your submission should include:

• a manuscript submitted as pdf
• a maximum 5-minute video submitted as MP4
• a brief abstract (1200-character count max)
• a github repository with reproducible code

A manuscript should include:

• a maximum of 25 lines per page, double spaced
• 1-inch margins
• 12-point font
• a maximum of 5 pages*
• a title page with title, brief abstract (1 paragraph in length) and keywords
• References typed using the style of the Biometrics journal
• Tables and figures at the end of manuscript
• no more than FOUR (4) tables and/or figures

*Title page, up to 2 tables and 2 figures and references are NOT included in the 5-page limit.

A manuscript should NOT include:

• supplemental materials

A video submission should be no longer than 5 minutes and include:

• a problem statement
• a statistical analysis overview
• key results
• conclusion

Review Criteria

Up to 6 teams will be selected through review by the ENAR DataFest Committee for a 5-minute presentation as part of the February DataFest WebENAR. The final 4 teams will then be selected to participate in the ENAR Spring Meeting. Selection criteria will emphasize the strength of the project in four areas:

• Clarity of research purpose and motivation by a relevant problem.
• Innovative approach that is relevant to the motivating question.
• Scientifically meaningful results are clearly explained and/or illustrated.
• Organization of the article and presentation is clear and concise.

Submission of DataFest Projects

All projects and supporting documentation must be submitted No Later Than 11:59 p.m. ET January 17, 2024. You are required to complete Steps 1-3.

STEP 1: Electronic Submission of Student Interest Form.

STEP 2: Electronic Submission of DataFest Team Submission Form.*

*Required: Github Repository (with reproducible code and report) AND Video Presentation

STEP 3: Register for the ENAR 2024 Spring Meeting.

ENAR DataFest Submission Forms

Faculty/Professional Judge or Mentor Interest Form
We seek ENAR members who are either faculty or working professionals to serve as either DataFest judges or mentors.

• Judges will be tasked with scoring submitted project reports, consisting of a 5-minute video presentation and review of a reproducible codebase. Rubrics will be provided to guide the judging process. Judge interest forms are due by Wednesday, January 10, 2024.
• Mentors will be tasked with having one or two office hours (1-2 hours in length) which student teams can sign up to attend. Office hours serve as initial feedback on student team submissions. Mentors will review the grading rubrics to gain a deeper understanding of the topics that each team will be assessed on. Mentors can serve as judges only for teams they did not consult with during their office hours. Mentor interest forms are due by Tuesday, December 5, 2023.

Student Team Interest Form
We are seeking PhD and Masters students, who are interested in participating in the very first ENAR DataFest. Student teams can be made up of 1-4 members. One member from your team should complete the DataFest Submission Form and include all member names, emails and affiliations. Student interest forms are due by Wednesday, January 10, 2024.

DataFest Project Submission Form
Please submit your projects using the form below. We request information on all student team members (max 4), a link to the reproducible code-base shared via Github, and a video submission or link to video submission consisting of the 5-minute DataFest project presentation. DataFest Team submission forms are due by Wednesday, January 17, 2024.