title: Health status as measured by SF-36 reflects changes and predicts outcome in chronic musculoskeletal pain: a 3-year follow up study in the general population.
abstract: The SF-36 is a well-validated health status instrument measuring eight different health concepts. One aim of this study was to compare health status as measured by SF-36 in subjects from the general population with no chronic pain (NCP), chronic regional pain (CRP), and chronic widespread pain (CWP). A second aim was to assess if SF-36 could reflect changes in pain status over time. A third aim was to study if health status at baseline, measured by SF-36, could predict pain status 3 years later. The study was designed as a 3-year follow up with a postal questionnaire, including the SF-36 health survey, to 2357 subjects from the general population aged 20-74 years. The results were controlled for age, sex, co-morbidity, and socio-economic status. At baseline, all eight health concepts of SF-36 discriminated between subgroups with NCP, CRP and CWP. Changes in SF-36 over the 3-year follow up time coincided with improvement or deterioration of pain status. Baseline SF-36 scores predicted pain outcome 3 years later. These results support that both physical and mental aspects of health status as measured by SF-36 are affected by the burden of musculoskeletal pain, are sensitive to changes in pain status, and also predict the further development of pain.
authors.affiliation: Primary Care Centre Hertig Knut, Halmstad, Sweden. stefan.bergman@spenshult.se
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bergman
authors.forename: Lennart T H
authors.initials: LT
authors.lastname: Jacobsson
authors.forename: Per
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Herrström
authors.forename: Ingemar F
authors.initials: IF
authors.lastname: Petersson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009140:Musculoskeletal Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010146:Pain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires