Abstract
The growing demand for subjective measurements of health in clinical studies has encouraged the rapid creation of many new scales, leading to compromises in the quality of some instruments. Quality control standards are desirable to guide the development of measures and subsequent data interpretation. The limitations in existing measures may be classified under three broad topic areas: 1) shortcomings in the design of the instrument, 2) methodological limitations in the process of its development, and 3) shortcomings in the way that the instrument is described following its initial development. We outline examples of common problems in these areas and propose guidelines for the design, development and presentation of health measurement methods. The guidelines represent a preliminary step in formalizing a discipline of health measurement.
Keywords
Presentation (obstetrics)Quality (philosophy)Process (computing)Computer scienceRisk analysis (engineering)Management scienceProcess managementInterpretation (philosophy)Data scienceMedicineBusinessEngineering
Affiliated Institutions
Related Publications
Harmonized guidelines for single-laboratory validation of methods of analysis (IUPAC Technical Report)
Abstract Method validation is one of the measures universally recognized as a necessary part of a comprehensive system of quality assurance in analytical chemistry. In the past,...
One size fits all? What counts as quality practice in (reflexive) thematic analysis?
Developing a universal quality standard for thematic analysis (TA) is complicated by the existence of numerous iterations of TA that differ paradigmatically, philosophically and...
Rationale and Standards for the Systematic Review of Qualitative Literature in Health Services Research
Despite growing recognition of the need for qualitative methods in health services research, there have been few attempts to define quality standards for assessing the results. ...
The 22-Item Scale Used In Field Studies of Mental Illness: A Question of Method, a Question of Substance, and a Question of Theory
The 22-item scale developed through the Midtown Manhattan Study is considered from methodological, substantive, and theoretical perspectives. This paper concludes that the instr...
Causal Variables, Indicator Variables and Measurement Scales: An Example from Quality of Life
Summary There is extensive literature on the development and validation of multi-item measurement scales. Much of this is based on principles derived from psychometric theory an...
Publication Info
- Year
- 1996
- Type
- review
- Volume
- 1
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 238-246
- Citations
- 122
- Access
- Closed
External Links
Social Impact
Altmetric
PlumX Metrics
Social media, news, blog, policy document mentions
Citation Metrics
122
OpenAlex
Cite This
Ian McDowell,
Crispin Jenkinson
(1996).
Development Standards for Health Measures.
Journal of Health Services Research & Policy
, 1
(4)
, 238-246.
https://doi.org/10.1177/135581969600100410
Identifiers
- DOI
- 10.1177/135581969600100410