title: [How to measure patient-important outcomes in clinical studies].
abstract: Investigators often want to assess patient-important outcomes in clinical studies. They are confronted with the challenging selection of the most appropriate instrument. Instruments should offer an unambiguous and reliable measurement. In addition, there should be evidence from validation studies that they really measure what they intend to measure. Fully standardised questionnaires often fulfil these requirements best and they are amenable to statistical analyses. However it should be ensured that these measurement properties have been verified for the language, in which the questionnaire will be used. There are databases that inform investigators about instruments that have been validated in the respective language.
authors.affiliation: Abteilung für Psychosoziale Medizin, Universitätsspital Zürich.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Klaghofer
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Puhan
mesh_terms: D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015340:Epidemiologic Research Design; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013557:Switzerland