Skip to main content
NCBI home page
The British Journal of General Practice logoLink to The British Journal of General Practice
. 1992 Jun;42(359):227–231.

Outcome measures for primary health care: what are the research priorities?

A Hutchinson 1, P Fowler 1
PMCID: PMC1372057  PMID: 1419243

Abstract

A Delphi technique was used to ask general practitioners for their opinions as to which clinical problems and types of measure they thought most appropriate for the development of outcome measures for use in primary health care. The study comprised two rounds of postal questionnaires, targeted at general practitioners in academic departments throughout the United Kingdom and at trainers in the northern region, with the second questionnaire feeding back opinions from the first. Ninety eight participants suggested one or more areas in which outcome measures could be developed, giving a total of 451 suggestions. Consensus produced in the second round indicated that three clinical conditions were preferred for the development of outcome measures: asthma, diabetes and hypertension. Six categories of outcome measures were developed from the responses given in the first round--level of function, level of clinical control, incidence of complications, iatrogenic problems, patient understanding of a condition, and quality of life. Participants gave these measures different levels of importance according to the clinical problem in question. This Delphi study of doctors' opinions is a first step in the development process of appropriate, practicable measures of outcome for use in primary care and has achieved a degree of consensus among general practitioners.

Full text

PDF
227

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Bond S., Bond J. A Delphi survey of clinical nursing research priorities. J Adv Nurs. 1982 Nov;7(6):565–575. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2648.1982.tb00277.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Brook R. H., Lohr K. N. Efficacy, effectiveness, variations, and quality. Boundary-crossing research. Med Care. 1985 May;23(5):710–722. doi: 10.1097/00005650-198505000-00030. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Burns T. J., Batavia A. I., Smith Q. W., DeJong G. Primary health care needs of persons with physical disabilities: what are the research and service priorities? Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 1990 Feb;71(2):138–143. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Chassin M. R. Standards of care in medicine. Inquiry. 1988 Winter;25(4):437–453. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Chin J., Sato P. A., Mann J. M. Projections of HIV infections and AIDS cases to the year 2000. Bull World Health Organ. 1990;68(1):1–11. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Farmer A. Setting up consensus standards for the care of patients in general practice. Br J Gen Pract. 1991 Apr;41(345):135–136. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Fink A., Kosecoff J., Chassin M., Brook R. H. Consensus methods: characteristics and guidelines for use. Am J Public Health. 1984 Sep;74(9):979–983. doi: 10.2105/ajph.74.9.979. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Gabbay J., Francis L. How much day surgery? Delphic predictions. BMJ. 1988 Nov 12;297(6658):1249–1252. doi: 10.1136/bmj.297.6658.1249. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Goodman C. M. The Delphi technique: a critique. J Adv Nurs. 1987 Nov;12(6):729–734. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2648.1987.tb01376.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Hyland M. E., Finnis S., Irvine S. H. A scale for assessing quality of life in adult asthma sufferers. J Psychosom Res. 1991;35(1):99–110. doi: 10.1016/0022-3999(91)90011-c. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Levine A. A model for health projections using knowledgeable informants. World Health Stat Q. 1984;37(3):306–317. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Park R. E., Fink A., Brook R. H., Chassin M. R., Kahn K. L., Merrick N. J., Kosecoff J., Solomon D. H. Physician ratings of appropriate indications for three procedures: theoretical indications vs indications used in practice. Am J Public Health. 1989 Apr;79(4):445–447. doi: 10.2105/ajph.79.4.445. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Sudre P., Breman J. G., Koplan J. P. Delphi survey of malaria mortality and drug resistance in Africa. Lancet. 1990 Mar 24;335(8691):722–722. doi: 10.1016/0140-6736(90)90833-q. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The British Journal of General Practice are provided here courtesy of Royal College of General Practitioners

RESOURCES