Applicability of the 12-Item Short-Form Health Survey in patients with progressive systemic sclerosis.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the applicability of the 12-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12) as an instrument to measure health-related quality of life in a sample of patients with progressive systemic sclerosis (PSS) through the analysis of its reproducibility and its correlation with functional and clinical parameters.


METHODS
A test-retest reproducibility study for the comparative analysis of the intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) of the SF-12 and the SF-36. A total of 46 patients diagnosed with PSS were studied, regardless of the presence of respiratory symptoms.


RESULTS
The physical component summary 12 (PCS-12) score had an ICC of 0.47 (95%CI: 0.05-0.71; p < 0.02), whereas the mental component summary (MCS-12) score had an ICC of 0.72 (95%CI: 0.49-0.84; p < 0.001). The PCS-36 score had an ICC of 0.88 (95%CI: 0.78-0.93; p < 0.001), and the MCS-36 score also had an ICC of 0.88 (95%CI: 0.78-0.93; p < 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
The SF-12 is a reliable instrument for measuring health-related quality of life in patients with PSS, since it has been proven to be reproducible. However, this version of the SF-12 should only be used in clinical research settings.
Andrade
Thamine Lessa
TL
Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador, BA, Brasil. lessath@uol.com.br
Camelier
Aquiles Assunção
AA
Rosa
Fernanda Warken
FW
Santos
Marcia Pina
MP
Jezler
Sérgio
S
Pereira e Silva
Jorge Luiz
JL
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D010552:Personality Assessment; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012129:Respiratory Function Tests; D045743:Scleroderma, Diffuse / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires