Health Status Measurement, Construct Validity

Just as it is important to ascertain that a measurement instrument produces reliable results across different situations, it is crucial to assess whether it measures what it is intended to measure—its validity. In the area of health status measurement, construct validation of measurement instruments underlies sound medical decision making. Validity is established through a process involving a series of experiments designed to test various relevant hypotheses about the structure and nature of the construct and its logical manifestations. The results of these experiments inform the level of confidence with which researchers make conclusions about the persons under study and the interpretation of instrument scores.

Early measurement of health focused heavily on disease and mortality rates for populations and on clinical variables representing disease activity for individuals. ...

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