---
title: Proxy measure
description: This term comes from medicine and usually applies to the use of one measure to predict another, usually life expectation/mortality, that takes longer to measure. Typical examples are levels of tumour antigens in the blood. Arguably, all psychotherapy change/outcome measures…
url: "https://www.psyctc.org/psyctc/glossary2/proxy-measure/"
updated: "2021-08-12"
category: All OM book glossary entries
---

# Proxy measure

This term comes from medicine and usually applies to the use of one measure to predict another, usually life expectation/mortality, that takes longer to measure. Typical examples are levels of tumour antigens in the blood.

Arguably, all psychotherapy change/outcome measures are only proxy measures: clients don't come wanting to have their self-report questionnaire measure score improved at the end of therapy, they hope for longer term change, increased resilience and ability to cope etc. There's a desperate shortage of even relatively short term, three months to a year say, outcome measures in our field and almost no work on longer term follow-up.

#### Chapters

Chapter 4, probably should have been in Chapter 10 too!