Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 6, 2026

Development of a Virtual Reality Assessment of Everyday Living Skills
Published on: April 23, 2014
Measuring mental health outcomes with pre-post designs
E W Lambert1, A Doucette, L Bickman
1Center for Mental Health Policy, Vanderbilt University, Nashville 37212, USA. Warren.Lambert@Vanderbilt.edu
Abstract:
The pre-post design has been the workhorse of outcome evaluations for many years. Using data from a study of 984 treated children (ages 5 to 17 years), this article argues that there are two structural problems with the pre-post evaluation of outcome: (1) excessively large intervals of uncertainty for individual outcomes and (2) paradoxical inconsistencies in the evaluation of groups. These problems can be solved by designs with three or more repeated measures analyzed with longitudinal multilevel analytic models.
Related Concept Videos
Longitudinal Research
Group Design
Regression Toward the Mean
Experimental Designs
Bioequivalence Experimental Study Designs: Repeated Measures, Cross-Over, Carry-Over, and Latin Square Designs
Study Designs in Epidemiology
Observational studies are those where the researcher does not intervene but rather observes natural variations. They include cross-sectional, cohort, and case-control studies.

