Methodology State-of-the-art workshop: management of measurement reactivity in trials of interventions to improve health

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Measurement reactivity has been defined as being present where measurement results in changes in the people being measured. There is evidence which show that asking people to complete questionnaires can result in changes in behaviour. In addition, other types of measurement can change behaviour, specifically in medical and healthcare contexts. This workshop will examine how these changes in behaviour in response to being measured can result in bias in trials in medical and healthcare contexts. Although there is increasing study of why measurement can affect behaviour, there remains a need to increase understanding of situations where being measured could interact with the mechanisms by which healthcare interventions are supposed to produce effects. There is a lack of consensus on the situations where one would expect measurement reactivity effects to occur, and little discussion of when one would expect these measurement reactivity effects to interact with other interventions. In sum, although there is now good evidence that measurement is not an inert procedure, it has generally been ignored in discussions of how to reduce bias in trials. There is no agreed set of practices for conduct, reporting or analysis of measurements that allow these patterns of responding to be understood or controlled for.Therefore, a set of guidance statements on how best to reduce bias due to measurement reactivity in studies of interventions to improve health will be produced.