What Clinicians Need to Know About Measurement

July 29, 2021

IMPACT member Sheryl Zimmerman, PhD, Executive Committee, Patient and Caregiver Relevant Outcomes Core is the author of an editorial discussing five critical issues that clinicians must be aware of when reviewing research measurements. She suggests clinicians should be educated consumers regarding measurement, and not draw conclusions without considering how measurement may have impacted the article’s findings and relevance.

The August issue of JAMDA features numerous articles that advance measurement in post-acute and long-term care. Measurement is of critical importance in clinical care: it matters for screening, assessing, predicting, treating, dosing, and monitoring. However, few clinicians understand critical issues underlying measurement itself, despite the fact that such understanding is important to digest research findings and conclusions and their application to practice. This editorial presents 5 of those issues: measurement in relation to causality, relevance, adequacy, psychometrics, and inference.