ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with patient-assessed measures; that is to say, questionnaires or similar instruments completed by the patient rather than by the health professional. These measures are increasingly used to assess patients’ needs for and outcomes of treatment, and a remarkable proliferation of such instruments has occurred during the past 20 years. The health professional has problems of choosing between the enormous array of instruments, even within a single field such as orthopaedics and trauma. This chapter is intended to be an introductory guide to the principles that should inform choice of a patient-assessed instrument. More detailed guides exist which describe both the range of available instruments and the principles of measurement involved in their use (Bowling 1995; Fitzpatrick et al. 1998). Three broad types of instrument are considered that are measures of: (i) health or functional status; (ii) health-related quality of life; and (iii) patient satisfaction. In practice, distinctions between these categories are difficult to maintain, and so instruments may contain items addressing all three areas.
