Reliability and validity of the SF-12 health survey among people with severe mental illness.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this work was to assess the reliability and validity of the Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form 12-Item Health Survey (SF-12) in a large sample of people with severe mental illness (SMI).


METHODS
We examined the internal factor structure of the SF-12, compared component scores for this sample with normative levels, examined test-retest reliability, and examined convergent and divergent validity by comparing SF-12 scores to other indexes of physical and mental health.


RESULTS
The SF-12 distinguished this sample of people with SMI from the general population, was stable over a 1-week interval, consisted of 2 fairly distinct factors, and was related to physical and mental health indexes in expected ways.


CONCLUSIONS
The SF-12 appears to be a psychometrically sound instrument for measuring health-related quality of life for people with SMI.
Salyers
M P
MP
Department of Psychology, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis, USA. psalyer@iupui.edu
Bosworth
H B
HB
Swanson
J W
JW
Lamb-Pagone
J
J
Osher
F C
FC
D000328:Adult; D003237:Connecticut; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008396:Maryland; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D009513:New Hampshire; D009657:North Carolina; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000592:standards*; D011594:Psychometrics; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D011788:Quality of Life; D012720:Severity of Illness Index