Biomaterial Database

General practitioners' decision making for mental health problems: outcomes and ecological validity. 1994

J Braspenning, and J Sergeant

Faculty of Medical Sciences, Medical Technology Assessment, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

A major problem in the field of medical decision making is the ecological (external) validity of the results. In a Judgement Analysis study on mental health, vignettes were used to capture the decision strategies of 28 General Practitioners (GPs). Two different decision strategies for mental health problems could be distinguished. Although the results were statistically satisfactory and met the assumptions of Judgement Analysis, it was considered necessary to determine the ecological validity of the vignettes. Video tapes (n = 90) of GP consultations were scored in terms of the units of information (cues) which had been used in the vignette study. Additional data gave access to the judgements of the GPs, which were comparable to the judgements obtained in the vignette study. Results showed that the weights given to the different cues in the vignette study were situated within the confidence interval of the weights from the video study. Thus indicating that the results obtained from the vignette study have ecological validity.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D011602	Psychophysiologic Disorders	A group of disorders characterized by physical symptoms that are affected by emotional factors and involve a single organ system, usually under AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM control. (American Psychiatric Glossary, 1988)	Psychosomatic Disorders,Psychophysiological Disorders,Psychophysiologic Disorder,Psychophysiological Disorder,Psychosomatic Disorder
D003463	Cues	Signals for an action; that specific portion of a perceptual field or pattern of stimuli to which a subject has learned to respond.	Cue
D003657	Decision Making	The process of making a selective intellectual judgment when presented with several complex alternatives consisting of several variables, and usually defining a course of action or an idea.	Credit Assignment,Assignment, Credit,Assignments, Credit,Credit Assignments
D005194	Family Practice	A medical specialty concerned with the provision of continuing, comprehensive primary health care for the entire family.	Family Practices,Practice, Family,Practices, Family
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D001523	Mental Disorders	Psychiatric illness or diseases manifested by breakdowns in the adaptational process expressed primarily as abnormalities of thought, feeling, and behavior producing either distress or impairment of function.	Mental Illness,Psychiatric Diseases,Psychiatric Disorders,Psychiatric Illness,Behavior Disorders,Diagnosis, Psychiatric,Mental Disorders, Severe,Psychiatric Diagnosis,Illness, Mental,Mental Disorder,Mental Disorder, Severe,Mental Illnesses,Psychiatric Disease,Psychiatric Disorder,Psychiatric Illnesses,Severe Mental Disorder,Severe Mental Disorders
D014743	Videotape Recording	Recording of visual and sometimes sound signals on magnetic tape.	Tape Recording, Video,Videotapes,Recording, Video Tape,Recording, Videotape,Recordings, Video Tape,Recordings, Videotape,Tape Recordings, Video,Video Tape Recording,Video Tape Recordings,Videotape,Videotape Recordings
D015203	Reproducibility of Results	The statistical reproducibility of measurements (often in a clinical context), including the testing of instrumentation or techniques to obtain reproducible results. The concept includes reproducibility of physiological measurements, which may be used to develop rules to assess probability or prognosis, or response to a stimulus; reproducibility of occurrence of a condition; and reproducibility of experimental results.	Reliability and Validity,Reliability of Result,Reproducibility Of Result,Reproducibility of Finding,Validity of Result,Validity of Results,Face Validity,Reliability (Epidemiology),Reliability of Results,Reproducibility of Findings,Test-Retest Reliability,Validity (Epidemiology),Finding Reproducibilities,Finding Reproducibility,Of Result, Reproducibility,Of Results, Reproducibility,Reliabilities, Test-Retest,Reliability, Test-Retest,Result Reliabilities,Result Reliability,Result Validities,Result Validity,Result, Reproducibility Of,Results, Reproducibility Of,Test Retest Reliability,Validity and Reliability,Validity, Face