The Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences & Practice A journal dedicated to allied health professionals
	Book Review - Vol. 1 No. 2 - ISSN 1540-580X

Book Review:
"Measurement Tools in Patient Education"
A text by by Barbara Klug Redman, Ph.D., RN, FAAN

Review by:
Elysa Lipschutz, Ph.D., OTR/L
Assistant Professor, Occupational Therapy Department
College of Allied Health and Nursing; Nova Southeastern University

Based on:
Measurement Tools in Patient Education, 2nd Edition, 2003
by Barbara Klug Redman, Ph.D., RN, FAAN;
Springer Publishing Company, New York, NY
ISBN 0-8261-9859-7

Correspondance to:
Elysa Lipschutz, Ph.D., OTR/L
Occupational Therapy Program
Nova Southeastern University
3200 South University Drive
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33328
E-mail: elysa@nova.edu

Citation:
Lipschutz E: Book Review of "Measurement Tools in Patient Education" by Barbara Klug Redman, The Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice. July 2003. Volume 1 Number 2.
 

Key words and terms: patient education, measurement tools, patient research tools

Measurement Tools in Patient Education provides a critique of eighty-six patient education measurement instruments.  The author perceived a need for a centralized source of information regarding the use and applicability of such tools in order to improve the quality of assessing patient needs and evaluating the effectiveness of patient education and care.  This new (2nd) edition reflects an updated and expanded compilation of instruments over the first issue and proves useful for health care practitioners, researchers and students.

The first part of the book offers an overview of measurement in patient education and general information on tool selection and psychometrics.  The second part of the book is divided into nine domains related to conditions and health related topics.  The domains reviewed are:

a) Basic Patient Education Needs,
b) Diabetes,
c) Arthritis and Other Rheumatic Diseases,
d) Asthma,
e) Cardiovascular Illness,
f) Cancer,
g) Pregnancy, Childbirth and Parenting,
h) Other Clinical Topics, and
i) Health Promotion, Disease Prevention and Increasing Quality of Life

Within each of these sections, the author reviews several tools by describing the instruments, the psychometric properties and the research using the instruments.  The author also critiques each tool and includes a copy of each instrument.  In general, the patient education measurements in this text address the constructs of beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, decision making, knowledge, learning assessment, and self-efficacy.

As an example of the content of the book, consider the Falls Efficacy Scale; a tool designed to measure fear of falling developed by Tinetti, Richman and Powell in 1990.  Redman (2003) provides a synopsis of the development, administration and scoring guidelines of the instrument.  In addition, she provides a review of the research conducted to describe the psychometric properties of the Falls Efficacy Scale.  She concludes the overview with a critique of her perspective on the quality of the tool's psychometrics and applications.  Other tools reviewed include the Toddler Care Questionnaire (Gross & Rocissano, 1988), which measures maternal confidence during toddlerhood; the Arthritis Self-Efficacy Scale (Lorig, Chastain, Ung, Shoor & Holman, 1989) measuring client perceived self-efficacy to cope with consequences of chronic arthritis; and the HIV Prevention Attitude Scale (Torabi & Yarber, 1992), which evaluates educational approaches to HIV control among adolescents.

This text could serve as an important resource in clinical and community settings to stimulate program development or facilitate patient education program evaluation.  Researchers and students would likely find this book helpful when designing investigations and outcome studies.  The information on each instrument is current, clearly written and well organized.  The appendix consists of a table summarizing essential characteristics of each tool.  The array of instruments is applicable to a broad spectrum of health care disciplines and practice arenas.  This book is highly relevant to health care practitioners and researchers interested in a resource for determining applicable methods to measure patient education.

References

Gross, D., & Rocissano, L. (1988).  Maternal confidence during toddlerhood: Comparing preterm and full-term groups. Research in Nursing and Health, 12,  1-9.

Lorig, K., Chastain, R. L., Ung, E., Shoor, S., & Holman, H. R. (1989).  Development and evaluation of a scale to measure perceived self-efficacy in people with arthritis.  Arthritis and Rheumatism, 32, 27-34.

Redman, B.K. (2003).  Measurement tools in patient education (2nd edition).  New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.

Tinetti, M. E., Richman, D., & Powell, L. (1990).  Falls efficacy as a measure of fear of falling.  Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 45, P239-243.

Torabi, M.R. & Yarber, W. (1992).  Alternate forms of HIV Prevention Attitude Scales for teenagers.  AIDS Education and Prevention, 4,  172-182.

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