IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v41y1995i10p1395-1401.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Evaluating the efficacy of medical treatment: Possibilities and limitations

Author

Listed:
  • Jenkinson, Crispin

Abstract

This review outlines the possible uses of subjective health status measures in the evaluation of medical treatment, and possible limitations and pitfalls that potential users of such measures must be aware. Whilst much has been written about the requirements of measures in terms of reliability, validity and responsiveness, many existing measures which have gained widespread use have serious shortcomings. In this paper, the limitations of some existing questionnaires are outlined. It is argued that whilst outcomes measurement has the promise to positively influence medical care, done without due consideration of its limitations and weaknesses it could lead to inaccurate or inappropriate data. In the current climate, in which health outcomes data is viewed as central to monitoring and evaluation, inappropriate or unconsidered use of measures could have drastic effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Jenkinson, Crispin, 1995. "Evaluating the efficacy of medical treatment: Possibilities and limitations," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 41(10), pages 1395-1401, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:41:y:1995:i:10:p:1395-1401
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0277-9536(95)00119-R
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:41:y:1995:i:10:p:1395-1401. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.