title: A latent variable model of evidence-based quality improvement for substance abuse treatment.
abstract: Attempts to improve the quality of substance abuse treatment are hampered by an inability to define specifically the elements of high quality of care and, more important, the lack of a research paradigm within which to study the necessary and sufficient elements of appropriate care. This study proposes that the quality-of-care (QOC) construct for substance abuse treatment might be best considered as a latent construct that does not necessarily exist as a single set of criteria but instead is indicated by a set of empirically derived indicators manifested as a latent factor. Results support defining latent QOC variables across levels of care for alcoholism treatment and empirically defining latent QOC measures from administrative records.
authors.affiliation: Piedmont Research Institute, Inc., 976 Airport Road, Suite 100, Chapel Hill, NC 27514, USA. rlennox@iedmontresearchusa.com
authors.forename: R D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Lennox
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Mansfield
mesh_terms: D000437:Alcoholism / Q000628:therapy*; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000592:standards*; D015146:Midwestern United States; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009786:Occupational Health Services / Q000592:standards*; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D017749:Total Quality Management