title: Development of a Vietnamese version of the Short form-36 Health Survey.
abstract: We aimed to test the psychometric properties of a culturally relevant translation of the medical outcomes study short form-36 health survey (SF-36) with prospective Vietnamese migrants. The translated survey was interviewer-administered to 1610 Vietnamese aged over 15 years who had applied to migrate to Australia. All but two SF-36 items had good discriminant validity, and all eight scales of the Vietnamese version of the SFS-36 had good discriminant validity, which supports the use of SF-36 constructs to assess self-reported health status among Vietnamese migrants. However, the mental health, vitality and bodily pain scales demonstrated low internal consistency. This finding is likely to be a product of the increased diversity among scale items following modifications to improve cultural relevance. Further modifications to improve the internal consistency of these scales are required.
authors.affiliation: Division of Health Sciences, Curtin University of Technology, GPO Box U1987, Perth, Western Australia 6845. rwatkins@cc.curtin.edu.au
authors.forename: R E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Watkins
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Plant
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sang
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: O'Rourke
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gushulak
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001315:Australia; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics; D014744:Vietnam / Q000208:ethnology