Outcome Measures in Healthcare

Benefits, Outcomes, and Consequences

• Refers to the effect on the patient, not the effect on people providing the service
• Cost is not an outcome measure

Categories of Outcome Measures

• Effectiveness: measures the outcome of an intervention or service in natural units (e.g., cases successfully diagnosed, life years saved)
• Mortality: measures the effect of a treatment on patient mortality
• Quality of Life (QoL): measures the impact of a disease or treatment on a patient's overall well-being
• Utility: measures the relative preference for various health outcomes based on individual values and preferences

Effectiveness

• Measured in natural units (e.g., cases successfully diagnosed, life years saved)
• Can be general outcome measures or clinical indicators (e.g., number of asthma attacks avoided, pain-free days)
• Effectiveness vs. Efficacy: effectiveness measures the therapeutic consequence of a treatment in real-world conditions, while efficacy measures the consequence of a treatment under ideal conditions
• Quality of effectiveness information is critical, and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are considered the highest grade of evidence

Mortality

• Measures the effect of a treatment on patient mortality
• Examples: studies on the use of aspirin after myocardial infarction, lipid-lowering agents in coronary heart disease, and treatment of hypertension in patients with diabetes
• Limitations: people may die from causes other than the study interest, and mortality requires a long study with many patients

Quality of Life (QoL)

• Measures the impact of a disease or treatment on a patient's overall well-being
• Includes health-related (HRQoL) and non-health-related aspects of life
• Measuring QoL can be divided into generic and disease-specific measures
• Examples of generic measures: Short Form (SF)-36 health survey
• SF-36 health survey domains: physical functioning, role-physical, bodily pain, general health, vitality, social functioning, role-emotional, and mental health

Utility

• Measures the relative preference for various health outcomes based on individual values and preferences
• Allows patients to value their health status based on their own preferences
• Enables quantitative comparison of outcomes in different patient groups
• Examples: attaching a numerical value to the value a person has for a particular health state
• Utility measures can be used to compare outcomes for very different treatments in very different patient groups

This quiz covers the different categories of outcome measures in healthcare, including effectiveness, mortality, quality of life, and utility. Understand the importance of measuring outcomes in healthcare