Clinical Outcome Measures

The AHRQ Academy conducted a literature search to find peer-reviewed articles and reports that focus on the quality of integration in behavioral and physical health care settings. The literature search was limited to common comorbid physical and mental health conditions, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, depression, and anxiety. Clinical health outcomes were used as the primary markers of quality.

The Academy first performed an extensive search for clinical outcome measures that assess the quality of integration in health care settings using the following resources: National Quality Measures Clearinghouse, Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts (ASSIA), Health and Psychosocial Instruments (HAPI), PsycINFO, and PubMed. They also conducted searches specifically focusing on financial outcomes and provider experience with integrated behavioral health care.

An initial review of articles from the searches suggested that no specific clinical outcome measures for evaluating quality of integrated care exist. Measures in the articles either focused on an individual behavioral health condition or the physical health outcome alone. A final search was then conducted to identify additional articles about the psychometric properties of the outcome measures based on survey instruments. 

The measures from the literature search were evaluated based on sensitivity, specificity, validity, and reliability. To be selected for the final list of clinical outcome measures, the measure had to have at least two good psychometric properties.

Physical Health Conditions

Substance Use/Substance Abuse