title: The 36-item short form health survey: reliability and validity in Chinese medical students.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) is widely validated and popularly used in assessing the subjective quality of life (QOL) of patients and the general public. The aim of the study is to assess the psychometric properties of the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) in medical students in mainland of China.
  
  
  METHODS
  The reliability and validity of the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) questionnaire were assessed by conducting a cross-sectional study of Chinese medical students in December 2011. All 1358 3(rd) year and 4(th) year medical students from 46 classes at China Medical University were investigated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall Cronbach's α coefficient of the SF-36 questionnaire was 0.791, while the respective Cronbach's α coefficients for each of the seven dimensions were > 0.70, except where the social function dimension was 0.631. Results showed that the SF-36 questionnaire was reliable and valid.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In general, this study provides evidence that the SF-36 questionnaire is suitable measures for assess the QOL of medical students in China.
authors.affiliation: The Research Centre for Medical Education, China Medical University, 92 North Second Road, Heping District, Shenyang 110001, China.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Qu
authors.forename: Shi-Si
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Lun
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008503:Medical Staff; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013337:Students, Medical; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires