Little Evidence Exists on How to Measure Quality Improvement in People with Disabilities

Little evidence is available to adequately assess measures for evaluating quality improvement outcomes among disabled people, according to a new AHRQ-funded report. Quality of life, social functioning, and other outcomes measures are essential to help assess the quality of care for people with physical, intellectual, or developmental disabilities. Such measures are important because they can provide insight into how disabilities can influence ongoing medical conditions, treatment, and follow-up care. But no studies include disability as an underlying condition and also assess the outcomes of medical care for basic medical needs or secondary conditions in mixed populations of disabled and non-disabled participants. Research on disability as a comorbidity is at an early stage and could benefit from organized databases of critically assessed outcome measures, according to the lead author, Mary Butler, Ph.D., of the Minnesota Evidence-based Practice Center. The report is part of a larger initiative, Closing the Quality Gap: Revisiting the State of the Science, and builds on an earlier AHRQ series of evidence reports. The initiative was developed by AHRQ’s Effective Health Care Program. Select to read Quality Improvement Measurement of Outcomes for People with Disabilities.