Evaluating treatment efficacy by triangulation

Margarita Kay, Jill Guernsey de Zapien, Carmen Altamirano Wilson, Marianne Yoder

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

The project 'Efficacy of Support Groups for Mexican American Widows' was evaluated by triangulating results collected from different points of view. These included changes after one year in (1) measurement scores of standardized instruments, (2) assessment of adjustment to role of widow by the outsider and (3) evaluation by the widow herself. When subjects were categorized by their assignment to experimental or control groups, the scores on standardized instruments including the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Center for Epidemiologic Study of Depression (CES-D), Anxiety State, Life Satisfaction and new scales measuring Somatic symptoms and Emotional symptoms had decreased from time 1 to time 5 for all widows. However, the widows participating in support groups showed significantly improved changes in these scores. The outsiders found the women who participated in the support groups to have a far better change to the role of widow than the control widows. The support group windows themselves described more positive changes in themselves than did control widows.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1545-1554
Number of pages10
JournalSocial Science and Medicine
Volume36
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 1993

Keywords

  • Mexican American
  • bereavement resolution
  • evaluation
  • support groups

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Health(social science)
  • History and Philosophy of Science

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