Efficacy: Efficacy is a measure of how well an intervention works in ideal conditions. It’s typically determined in controlled settings, like in a lab or a clinical trial. Researchers measure the effectiveness of the intervention in a highly controlled environment, with a homogeneous group of participants, and under ideal conditions to determine the efficacy of the intervention. This helps to understand how well the intervention works in an ideal scenario, free from any external factors that might affect the results.
Effectiveness: Effectiveness is a measure of how well an intervention works in real-world settings. It’s determined by measuring the effectiveness of the intervention in a real-world setting, such as in a community or in a clinical practice, with a group of participants that are diverse and represent the typical population, and under typical (real-world) conditions. This helps to understand how well the intervention works in the actual environment where it’s intended to be used, taking into account the variations and complexities of the real-world scenarios.
Efficiency: Efficiency refers to how well the resources used by an intervention align with the outcomes achieved. Researchers measure the resources used, such as time or money, in relation to the outcomes achieved, like the number of people helped or the level of improvement, to determine the intervention’s efficiency. This helps to understand how well the intervention is utilizing the resources available to it and how much it costs to achieve a certain level of outcome. It’s a way to measure how effectively the resources are used to achieve the desired results.
In summary, Efficacy refers to how well an intervention works in ideal conditions, Effectiveness refers to how well it works in real-world settings, and Efficiency refers to how resources are used to achieve the desired outcomes.