36 Item Short Form Survey

Question 1

Objective

Answer 1

• Outcome measure instrument that is often used, well-researched, self-reported measure of health.
• Stems from a study called the Medical Outcomes Study for the objective measure of the quality of life.
• Comprises of 36 questions that cover eight domains of health:
  1. Limitations in physical activities because of health problems.
  2. Limitations in social activities because of physical or emotional problems.
  3. Limitations in usual role activities because of physical health problems
  4. Bodily pain
  5. General mental health (psychological distress and well-being)
  6. Limitations in usual role activities because of emotional problems
  7. Vitality (energy and fatigue)
  8. General health perceptions.
• The SF-36 is often used as measure of a person or populations quality of life (QOL).

Question 2

Intended Population

Answer 2

• The original authors designed the SF-36 to measure health at the individual level in clinical practice and research and at the population level for health policy evaluations, and general population surveys.
• It has been used in thousands of research studies.
• The SF-36 was originally designed as a generic health measure but has also been applied to specific disease population.

Question 3

Method of Use

Answer 3

• Patients or individuals are asked to fill out the questionnaire by themselves and then it is scored by a clinician or researcher.
• There are variations of the SF-36.
• Both sources (variations) are from different original authors and contain the same 36 questions and answers only differing slightly in the bodily pain and general health domains.
• Users should document which version they are using and the corresponding scoring system.
• Scores for the different domains are converted and pooled using a scoring key, for a total score indicating a range of low to high QoL.
• Two component scores can also be tallied; a physical component summary and a mental component summary but research suggests interpretation can be difficult and should be done in comparison to the overall score or profile.
• Similarly, research also suggests that the SF-36 cannot be used as a single index of over all health-related QoL because it measures two dimensions (physical and mental).

Question 4

Reliability

Answer 4

• The SF-36 has been shown to be reliable for people with schizophrenia and long-term survivors of childhood cancer.

Question 5

Validity

Answer 5

• The SF-36 has been shown to be valid for people with schizophrenia, stroke (the physical and mental health domains, the social functioning less so), mobility disability in the older adults, community-dwelling older adults, and dyspnoea in COPD.
• The SF-37 convergent validity was supported by findings that 83% of correlations between SF-36 scales and measures of disease symptoms, disease activity, and functioning exceeded the prespecified threshold.

Question 6

Responsiveness

Answer 6

• Research has shown the SF-36 to be the most responsive to change in workers with musculoskeletal disorders compared with similar generic health measures.