title: The RAND 36-Item Health Survey 1.0.
abstract: Recently, Ware and Sherbourne published a new short-form health survey, the MOS 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36), consisting of 36 items included in long-form measures developed for the Medical Outcomes Study. The SF-36 taps eight health concepts: physical functioning, bodily pain, role limitations due to physical health problems, role limitations due to personal or emotional problems, general mental health, social functioning, energy/fatigue, and general health perceptions. It also includes a single item that provides an indication of perceived change in health. The SF-36 items and scoring rules are distributed by MOS Trust, Inc. Strict adherence to item wording and scoring recommendations is required in order to use the SF-36 trademark. The RAND 36-Item Health Survey 1.0 (distributed by RAND) includes the same items as those in the SF-36, but the recommended scoring algorithm is somewhat different from that of the SF-36. Scoring differences are discussed here and new T-scores are presented for the 8 multi-item scales and two factor analytically-derived physical and mental health composite scores.
authors.affiliation: RAND, Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138.
authors.forename: R D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Hays
authors.forename: C D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Sherbourne
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Mazel
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000465:Algorithms; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003309:Copyright; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005221:Fatigue / Q000175:diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D016018:Least-Squares Analysis; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010146:Pain / Q000175:diagnosis; D011788:Quality of Life; D012015:Reference Standards; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012380:Role; D012737:Sex Factors; D012919:Social Behavior; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires