Measuring Functioning and Well-Being

Measuring Functioning and Well-Being is a comprehensive account of a broad range of self-reported functioning and well-being measures developed for the Medical Outcomes Study, a large-scale study of how patients fare with health care in the United States. This book provides a set of ready-to-use generic measures that are applicable to all adults, including those well and chronically ill, as well as a methodological guide to collecting health data and constructing health measures. As demand increases for more practical methods to monitor the outcomes of health care, this volume offers a timely and valuable contribution to the field. The contributors address conceptual and methodological issues involved in measuring such important health status concepts as physical, social, and role functioning; psychological distress and well-being; general health perceptions; energy and fatigue; sleep; and pain. The authors present psychometric results, explain how to administer, score, and interpret the measures, and offer suggestions for further research in health assessment. The measures can be used individually or as a set. Comprising the work of a number of highly respected scholars in the field of health assessment, the measures presented here should be useful in a variety of observational and experimental studies of health outcomes. Technically sophisticated, Measuring Functioning and Well-Being will be of great interest and value to the growing number of researchers, policymakers, and clinicians concerned with the management and evaluation of health care.