Measuring health in quantitative studies

For quantitative studies it is essential to select (and sometimes even construct) outcome measures, which are appropriate for measuring the specific aspect of health you are interested in. The measures should be valid, repeatable, and sensitive to change. It is complex and time-consuming to develop outcome measures afresh, so choose existing measures whenever possible and use them in the way they were intended. Measures may be generic or specific and should match the subjects involved. Objective measures, though accurate, may be less relevant to patients than subjective measures, particularly for CAM therapies. Findings made with one measure are more credible if they are supported by a second, as are results produced with the same measures used to measure outcomes in conventional medical studies. Careful planning of the analysis will help reveal any problems with measures.