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Measurement of health outcomes in the clinical setting: applications to physiotherapy

2001; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 17; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/095939801317077632

1532-5040

Paul Beattie,

Foot and Ankle Surgery

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of health-outcome measurement in the physiotherapy clinical environment and to discuss the role of performance tests and self-report measures in achieving this task. Although the principles of outcome assessment are similar for different patient populations, the examples used as illustrations in this paper relate primarily to those people with musculoskeletal dysfunction. Traditional clinical examination findings, although important for establishing diagnosis and treatment planning, do not include all of the dimensions necessary to adequately describe outcome. To overcome this, the emerging field of health-outcomes measurement has provided many useful tools that, when used properly, provide critical information to patients, clinicians, third-party payers, and health care policy administrators. The numeric indices generated by outcome measures allow statistical comparisons that are useful for patient care decisions, research, and health care policy determination. Patient performance tests provide valuable information regarding a person's ability to complete a relevant task in a controlled environment. In many cases, however, the results of performance tests do not provide complete information regarding a patient's status. The use of patient self-report measures, in the form of standardized questionnaires, has been gaining popularity as an adjunct, or replacement for, physical performance tests. Self-report measures provide a mechanism to assess the multiple dimensions of outcome and are typically easy to administer while assisting the determination of meaningful clinical change. When selecting tools to use for outcome assessment, clinicians should determine which dimensions are important to sample and identify performance or self-report measures that have appropriate reliability and validity. When used appropriately, these outcome measures are efficient and useful clinical tools for physiotherapy.