Health Services Research, Part 4: Conceptual and Operational Definitions
Why Do Conceptual and Operational Definitions Matter?
Do conceptual and operational definitions matter? Most surveys used in health services research suffer from a significant flaw. They fail to define what is measured with an appropriate level of specificity. This causes healthcare organizations to use instruments that can be vague or confusing. The resulting data is often difficult to analyze. Significant time and resources may have been wasted. This is especially true if the final survey results are of minimal use to the organization.
Creating Accurate Questions for Hard-to-Measure Domains
After the survey design team has crafted a clear statement of research purpose, they must create data collection questions that will allow them to gather information that accurately reflects the assessment domains or variables indicated in the research questions. However, this is deceptively difficult because few assessment domains are easily measurable.
For example, while a person’s height or resting pulse rate can be measured objectively with little difficulty, variables like “healthy dietary habits” cannot be measured as easily. In addition, any given area to be assessed may have several dimensions (discussed in Part 2 of this series). This entry focuses on how survey designers prepare to properly measure abstract and complex variables. Survey designers engage in a two-step process to render abstract concepts measurable. These processes elaborate conceptual and operational definitions.
Conceptual Definitions
A conceptual definition is critical for accurately measuring an abstract assessment domain.
Conceptualization is the process by which the survey design team clearly defines. For example, to measure the success of a program focused on “healthy dietary habits”, a health care organization must know exactly what they mean by that term.
Depending on the complexity of defining healthy dietary habits, very different data collection questions are necessary.
Operational Definitions
Once a conceptual definition has been created, the next step is elaborating on an operational definition. Operationalization is the process by which researchers define exactly what indicates the presence or absence of the various elements of the conceptual definition they have created. Keeping healthy dietary habits, for example, the survey designer team can operationalize it in several ways.
What data can be collected to demonstrate the program’s impact on the people involved? One survey design team may operationalize “healthy dietary habits” as “the individual’s consumption of calories falls within the recommended allowance at least 5 days a week.” Another may operationalize it as “the individual has reduced intake of deep-fried foods to an average of 1 day per week.”
Pitfalls
What are the pitfalls of poorly created conceptual and operational definitions? If a survey design team simply writes a data collection question to measure healthy dietary habits that says, “Since enrolling in our program, have you begun to eat healthier?” the individual is left to choose what it means to eat healthy. An individual who has increased intake of fruits, while making no other dietary changes, may answer “yes” to this, while another who has completely stopped eating fried foods and snacking on candies may still answer “no” because they are not yet confident in the permanency of these dietary changes.
Poor conceptual and operational definitions can compromise the validity of the survey. Survey questions may not measure what they are intended to, and the entire survey could produce meaningless data. Proper conceptual and operational definitions are a major step to guaranteeing a valid survey that can provide reportable results.
The Series
Focusing specifically on developing surveys for Health Services Research studies designed to measure health outcomes, this blog series details the following.
- Various types of health-related surveys and measurable outcomes
- Creating meaningful research questions
- Conceptualizing and operationalizing variables
- Developing sophisticated survey questions
Part 1: Introduction to Health Services Research
Part 2: Types of Surveys & Outcomes
Part 3: Research Questions
Part 4: Conceptual & Operational Definitions
Part 5: Writing Survey Questions
For more information, check out:
Crestline Advisors
Compliance Resource Center
Resources Include
https://www.ahrq.gov/cahps/surveys-guidance/index.html
http://www.hosonline.org/en/survey-instrument/
http://www.rand.org/health/surveys_tools.html
Aday, Lu Ann and Llewellyn J. Cornelius, 2006. “Designing and Conducting Health Surveys: A Comprehensive Guide,” Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, CA.
As an experienced health care professional, Susan (Sue) Dess brings many experiences to Crestline. Her 15-year administrative and executive management background spans the operations of both managed care and provider organizations.
Sue spent 25 years as an Emergency Room and Intensive Care Registered Nurse.
