Abstract
BackgroundClinicians require brief outcome measures in their busy daily practice to document global client outcomes. Based on the UK Therapy Outcome Measure, the Australian Therapy Outcome Measures were designed to capture global therapy outcomes of occupational therapy, physiotherapy and speech pathology in the Australian clinical context. The aim of this study was to investigate the construct (convergent) validity of the Australian Therapy Outcome Measures (AusTOMs) by comparing it with the EuroQuol-5D (EQ-5D).MethodsThe research was a prospective, longitudinal cohort study, with data collected over a seven month time period. The study was conducted at a total of 13 metropolitan and rural health-care sites including acute, sub-acute and community facilities. Two-hundred and five clients were asked to score themselves on the EQ-5D, and the same clients were scored by approximately 115 therapists (physiotherapists, speech pathologists and occupational therapists) using the AusTOMs at admission and discharge. Clients were consecutive admissions who agreed to participate in the study. Clients of all diagnoses, aged 18 years and over (a criteria of the EQ-5D), and able to give informed consent were scored on the measures. Spearman rank order correlation coefficients were used to analyze the relationships between scores from the two tools. The clients were scored on the AusTOMs and EQ-5D.ResultsThere were many health care areas where correlations were expected and found between scores on the AusTOMs and the EQ-5D.ConclusionIn the quest to measure the effectiveness of therapy services, managers, health care founders and clinicians are urgently seeking to undertake the first step by identifying tools that can measure therapy outcome. AusTOMs is one tool that can measure global client outcomes following therapy. In this study, it was found that on the whole, the AusTOMs and the EQ-5D measure similar constructs. Hence, although the validity of a tool is never 'proven', this study offers preliminary support for the construct validity of AusTOMs.
Highlights
Clinicians require brief outcome measures in their busy daily practice to document global client outcomes
The Australian Therapy Outcome Measures (AusTOMs) was based on the UK Therapy Outcome Measure (TOM) and adapted and developed to suit the current practices of therapists in Australia [6]
There was some support for the first hypothesis; '...There will be a clear pattern of correlations for the admission, discharge and change scores between the AusTOMs domains and the EQ-5D Health Status and Thermometer'
Summary
Clinicians require brief outcome measures in their busy daily practice to document global client outcomes. The goal of the study was to develop a reliable and valid measure of therapy outcome for the three largest allied health professions in Australia; occupational therapy (OT), physiotherapy (PT) and speech pathology (SP). Clinicians can use AusTOMs data which show client change over time in a variety of ways Clinicians can benchmark their service against other similar facilities which may prompt changes in the type or duration of therapy services offered [4]. Tools such as AusTOMs can be used in research (such as randomised controlled trials) to evaluate the effectiveness of therapy services
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
