title: Use of the SF-36 to identify community dwelling rural elderly at risk for hospitalization.
abstract: The SF-36 has been identified as a generic measure of health-related quality of life outcomes which is not age, disease, or treatment specific and is deemed appropriate for monitoring the results of care as well as a measure of outcomes from the patient's perspective. The purpose of this study was to use the SF-36 to assess the general health status and health promotion activity of rural elderly 1 year following participation in a community-based health promotion project. Eighty participants from the original sample of 222 (190 community-based and 32 home-based) were contacted by telephone and the SF-36 was administered. Results found that 76% of the study participants were correctly predicted for past hospitalization. While this project studied elderly in a rural community, the administration of this instrument can be useful in identifying a variety of populations at risk for hospitalization.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia 23529-0500, USA.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Benjamin-Coleman
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Alexy
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013689:Telephone