Concurrent and Construct Validity of the Outcome Questionnaire

Abstract

The Outcome Questionnaire (OQ) was developed by Lambert and colleagues (1994) as a standardized measure for assessing psychotherapy outcome. Although the instrument is already being widely used in managed health care quality control, further evidence of its psychometric properties is needed. This research evaluated the concurrent and construct validity of the OQ with three patient samples and a sample of community participants. Support was found for the construct and concurrent validity of the OQ with both patients (n = 183) and nonpatients (n = 210). The data show significant differences in scores between patients and community samples, as well as differences between the various clinical samples with varying levels of pathology. Although high correlations between the OQ Total (and subscale) scores and the criterion measures were found, high intercorrelations among subscales suggest considerable shared variance between subscales. The OQ Total score appears promising as a measure of general psychological distress, although further research is needed to justify the interpretation of subscale scores in clinical settings.

Psychotherapy quality control: the statistical generation of expected recovery curves for integration into an early warning system

“…Criterion validity studies reveal high correlations with extant measures of anxiety, depression, interpersonal functioning, and social adjustment. Construct validity studies measuring sensitivity to change in patients undergoing outpatient psychotherapy in samples from a university training clinic, Employee Assistance Programs, and managed care settings, all produced highly significant pretest/posttest differences on all scales of the OQ-45 (Burlingame et al, 1995;Lambert et al, 1996a, b;Umphress et al, 1997;Vermeersch et al, 2000).…”

Improving psychotherapy outcome: the use of immediate electronic feedback and revised clinical support tools

“…The OQ-45 was recently made available as a software application-OQ-Analyst-making it possible to deliver feedback with increased immediacy. The development of norms for the OQ-45 was based on data collected locally and nationally (Lambert et al, 1996Umphress, Lambert, Smart, Barlow, & Clouse 1997). Using formulas developed by Jacobson and Truax (1991), clinical and normative data for the OQ-45 were analysed by to provide cut-off scores for the reliable change index (14 points) and clinically signifi cant change (dysfunctional/functional cut-off, 64/63).…”

Preliminary Data from the NATSAP Research and Evaluation Network: Client Characteristics at Admission

“…(Bérubé & Auchenbach, 2007). The OQ instruments have been developed more recently but have published validity and reliability, have established correlations with the CBCL, and may potentially be more sensitive to client therapeutic change Mosier, 1998;Mueller, Lambert, & Burlingame, 1998;Umphress et al, 1997;G. Wells, Burlingame, Lambert, Hoag, & Hope, 1996).…”