Telephone administration of the SF-36 health survey: validation studies and population norms for adults in Queensland.
The Rand Corporation medical outcomes short-form 36 health survey (SF-36) is a multidimensional measure of self-perceived general health status, which has been validated in adult populations in the United States and Great Britain, and, more recently, in an Australian population. The SF-36 is increasingly being used in health outcomes research internationally, mainly as a self-administered tool, and clearly has potential for use in Australia. This study aimed to assess the acceptability, reliability and validity of telephone administration of the instrument in the Queensland adult population, and to provide reliable population norms. We report the results of a telephone survey in which we interviewed 12,793 adults. It was the first large-scale, statewide application of the SF-36 in Australia. A response rate of 82 per cent was achieved, and the SF-36 satisfied psychometric criteria for reliability and construct validity. Population norms broken down by age and sex are provided. They will be important for the interpretation of future studies using the SF-36 in particular population or patient groups.
Epidemiology and Health Information Branch, Queensland Health, Brisbane.
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Watson
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Firman
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Baade
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Ring
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000379:methods*; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011793:Queensland; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013689:Telephone; D006113:United Kingdom; D014481:United States