This is the third edition of a reference text that provides in-depth reviews of the quality of over 100 health measurement instruments. It guides the reader in choosing among rival methods, showing how to administer and score them. It also includes a historical and technical introduction to the field of health measurement.
Worldwide economic constraints on health care systems have highlighted the importance of evidence-based medicine and evidence-based health policy. The resulting clinical trials and health services research studies require instruments to monitor the outcomes of care and the output of the
health system. However, the over-abundance of competing measurement scales can make choosing a measure difficult at best. Measuring Health provides in-depth reviews of over 100 of the leading health measurement tools and serves as a guide for choosing among them.LNow in its third edition, this
book provides a critical overview of the field of health measurement, with a technical introduction and discussion of the history and future directions for the field. This latest edition updates the information on each of the measures previously reviewed, and includes a complete new chapter on
anxiety measurement to accompany the one on depression. It has also added new instruments to those previously reviewed in each of the chapters in the book.LChapters cover measurements of physical disability, social health, psychological well-being, anxiety, depression, mental status testing, pain,
general health status and quality of life. Each chapter presents a tabular comparison of the quality of the instruments reviewed, followed by a detailed description of each method, covering its purpose and conceptual basis, its reliability and validity and, where possible, shows a copy of the
actual scale. To ensure accuracy of the information, each review has been approved by the original author of each instrument or by an acknowledged expert.
...a real masterpiece...a magisterial overview of the science - and to put it mildly, it knocks the socks off almost all the (admittedly limited) competition...There is little chance of bettering this volume...unreservedly commended.
