COMPARING PROSPECTIVE AND RETROSPECTIVE MEASURES OF TREATMENT OUTCOMES

This study examines the correspondence between retrospective and prosp ective assessments of treatment outcomes among female patients treated for gynecologic symptoms (n = 800) and male patients having surgery f or benign prostatic hyperplasia (n = 434). The overall health and symp tom status of patients in both samples was assessed at enrollment and again 3 months after treatment; at the 3-month follow-up, patients als o were asked to compare retrospectively their current health and how t hey were feeling with their condition before treatment. Findings indic ate that prospective and retrospective measures of change do not yield the same results. Retrospective assessments consistently produce high er estimates of the benefits of treatment, although that pattern was c learer for overall health status than for measures of symptoms. Patien ts' posttreatment health and symptom status contributes as much to ret rospective assessments of change as does prospectively measured change , although the retrospective assessments of female patients whose gyne cologic symptoms were medically managed were more strongly related to prospective change than those of hysterectomy patients or prostate sur gery patients. Overall, we conclude that these alternative measurement strategies yield divergent assessments of change, depending on the ty pe of treatment a patient receives and, to some extent, what is being measured.