Abstract
STUDY OBJECTIVE: To examine the short form 36 (SF-36) health status measure when used to assess older people's views of the outcome of community based health care. DESIGN: Completion of a structured questionnaire, before and after intervention alongside in-depth interviews with a subsample of the interviewees. SETTING: Community based continence and mental health services in two health authorities in the North West Health Region. PATIENTS: Forty seven older people newly referred to mental health services or continence services between December 1992 and April 1993 participated. MAIN RESULTS: The SF-36 showed minimal change over time for both patient groups. The more detailed in-depth interviews showed that people experienced positive changes and derived value from contact with services in a number of important ways. For many reasons these benefits were not reflected in their SF-36 scores. CONCLUSIONS: The SF-36 is not likely to be the "measure of choice" for this type of evaluation, particularly where it involves older patient groups who have high levels of comorbidity. The content of the SF-36 and its lack of detail for individual assessment of change means it masks rather than illuminates patients' views of outcome.
Full text
PDF
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Brazier J. E., Harper R., Jones N. M., O'Cathain A., Thomas K. J., Usherwood T., Westlake L. Validating the SF-36 health survey questionnaire: new outcome measure for primary care. BMJ. 1992 Jul 18;305(6846):160–164. doi: 10.1136/bmj.305.6846.160. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Donovan J. L., Frankel S. J., Eyles J. D. Assessing the need for health status measures. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1993 Apr;47(2):158–162. doi: 10.1136/jech.47.2.158. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Folstein M. F., Folstein S. E., McHugh P. R. "Mini-mental state". A practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. J Psychiatr Res. 1975 Nov;12(3):189–198. doi: 10.1016/0022-3956(75)90026-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Garratt A. M., Ruta D. A., Abdalla M. I., Buckingham J. K., Russell I. T. The SF36 health survey questionnaire: an outcome measure suitable for routine use within the NHS? BMJ. 1993 May 29;306(6890):1440–1444. doi: 10.1136/bmj.306.6890.1440. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Jenkinson C., Coulter A., Wright L. Short form 36 (SF36) health survey questionnaire: normative data for adults of working age. BMJ. 1993 May 29;306(6890):1437–1440. doi: 10.1136/bmj.306.6890.1437. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Lyons R. A., Perry H. M., Littlepage B. N. Evidence for the validity of the Short-form 36 Questionnaire (SF-36) in an elderly population. Age Ageing. 1994 May;23(3):182–184. doi: 10.1093/ageing/23.3.182. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Patrick D. L., Deyo R. A. Generic and disease-specific measures in assessing health status and quality of life. Med Care. 1989 Mar;27(3 Suppl):S217–S232. doi: 10.1097/00005650-198903001-00018. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Singleton N., Turner A. Measuring patients' views of their health. SF 36 is suitable for elderly patients. BMJ. 1993 Jul 10;307(6896):126–127. doi: 10.1136/bmj.307.6896.126-b. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Ware J. E., Jr, Sherbourne C. D. The MOS 36-item short-form health survey (SF-36). I. Conceptual framework and item selection. Med Care. 1992 Jun;30(6):473–483. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Ware J. E. Measuring patients' views: the optimum outcome measure. BMJ. 1993 May 29;306(6890):1429–1430. doi: 10.1136/bmj.306.6890.1429. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]