The predictions of a reactive drift wave model for anomalous transport in tokamaks (Nordman et al 1990 Nucl. Fusion 30 983) are compared with JET profile data, using two different approaches. An interpretative approach is used to compare the radial heat fluxes under approximate steady-state conditions. For the steady states considered, taken from seven auxiliary heated JET discharges in various regimes, the predicted total heat flux tends to be over-estimated in the inner parts or under-estimated in the outer parts of the good confinement region (approximately between q = 1 and q = 2). A predictive approach is used to compare the density and temperature profiles of five L-mode discharges. These results are in good agreement with experiments (in the good confinement region the relative errors in the temperature profiles are and in the density profile approximately ). The interpretative code TRANSP is used to obtain the experimental profile data.