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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 Mar 1.
Published in final edited form as: Plast Reconstr Surg. 2010 Mar;125(3):799–810. doi: 10.1097/PRS.0b013e3181cb5e29

Table 1.

Scale & Characteristics
1. Rate Quality of Life
Question: Overall, how would you rate your quality of life?(0 = worse, 10 = best)
Location: WHI: Psychosocial/Behavioral (F38-Daily Life)
Origin: ?
2.Satisfied with Quality of Life
Question: How satisfied are you with your current quality of life? (1 = dissatisfied, 10 = satisfied)
WHI: Psychosocial/Behavioral (F38-Daily Life)
Origin: ?
3. Role Limitations due to Emotional Problems
Question(s): subscale from SF-36, 1-100, with higher scores indicating higher level of emotional health.
WHI: Psychosocial/Behavioral (F38-Daily Life) - EMOLIMIT
Origin: SF-36
4. Emotional Well-Being
Question(s): subscale from SF-36, 1-100, with higher scores indicating higher level of emotional health.
WHI: Psychosocial/Behavioral (F38-Daily Life) – Var 196, EMOWELL
Origin: SF-36
5. Energy/Fatigue
Question(s): subscale of SF-36 , 1-100, with higher scores indicating a more favorable health state.
WHI: Psychosocial/Behavioral (F38-Daily Life) – Var #197, ENERFAT
Origin: SF-36
6. Hostility Construct
Question(s): 13 Qs, with higher scores indicating higher levels of mistrust toward other people. Sum of 13 T/F items resulting in a possible
range from 0-13 where a higher score indicates greater hostility.
WHI: Psychosocial/Behavioral (F38-Daily Life) Var # 198, HOSTIL
Origin: Cook Medley Scale, Cynicism Subscale
7. General Health Construct
Question(s): from SF-36, 0-100, with higher scores indicating a more favorable health state.
WHI: Psychosocial/Behavioral (F38-Daily Life) – Var #199, GENHLTH
Origin: SF-36
8. Life Event Construct #1 (0,1 scoring)
Question(s): construct of Y/N to 11 possible major life events (such as losing a spouse), range 0-11, higher score indicating greater number of
life events.
WHI: Psychosocial/Behavioral (F38-Daily Life) – Var #200, LFEVENT1
Origin: WHI BAC: Alameda County Study and BHAT.
9. Life Event Construct #2 (0,3 scoring)
Question(s): sames as above but 0-3 scoring incorporates how much the event affected the individual. Range 0-33, with a higher score
indicating a greater number of life events. (takes into account perceived stressfulness of each event).
WHI: Psychosocial/Behavioral (F38-Daily Life) – Var # 201, LFEVENT2
Origin: WHI BAC: Alameda County Study and BHAT.
10. Negative Emotional Expressiveness (NEE)
Question(s): 4 questions on expression of negative emotions: summary score 1-5, where a higher score indicates greater expressiveness of
negative emotions.
WHI: Psychosocial/Behavioral (F38-Daily Life) Var #203-NEGEMOT
Origin: King L & Emmons R, 1990
11. Optimism construct
Question(s): LOT-R. 6 components coded 1= strongly disagree to 5= strongly agree. Range 6-30, higher score = greater optimism, and lower
score = greater pessimism.
WHI: Psychosocial/Behavioral (F38-Daily Life) = Var #204, OPTIMISM
Origin: LOT-R. Scheier & Carver, 1994.
12. Pain Construct
Question(s): 2 Questions from quality of life, pain subscale from SF-36, Range 0-100, with higher scores indicating favorable health state
(less pain).
WHI: Psychosocial/Behavioral (F38-Daily Life) - #205, PAIN
Origin: SF-36
13. Role Limitations Due to Physical Health
Question(s): 2 Qs from SF-36 quality of life subscale. Range 0-100, with higher scores indicating favorable health state
WHI: Psychosocial/Behavioral (F38-Daily Life) – Var #206-PHYLIMIT
Origin: SF-36
14. Physical Functioning Construct
Question(s): Subscale on quality of life from SF-36. Range 0-100, with higher scores indicating favorable health state
WHI: Psychosocial/Behavioral (F38-Daily Life), Var PHYSFUN.
Origin: SF-36
15. Sleep Disturbance Construct
Question(s): Summary score 4-24 where a higher score indicates greater sleep disturbance.
WHI: Psychosocial/Behavioral (F38-Daily Life) 209, SLPDSTRB.
Origin: ?
16. Social Functioning
Question(s): 2 Q's, quality of life subscale on social functioning. Range 0-100, with higher scores indicating favorable health state
WHI: Psychosocial/Behavioral (F38-Daily Life) – SOCFUNC.
Origin: SF-36
17. Social Strain Construct
Question(s): Scale measuring negative aspects of social relations. Sum of 4 components coded from 1=non to 5=all. Summary score range 4-
20 where a higher score indicates more social strain.
WHI: Psychosocial/Behavioral (F38-Daily Life) – Var #211, SOCSTRN
Origin: Antonucci TA, Kahn RC, Akiyama H (1989).
18. Social Support Construct
Question(s): Medical Outcomes Study (MOS), sum of components coded from 1= none of the time to 5=all of the time. Summary score range
9-45, where a higher score indicates more social support.
WHI: Psychosocial/Behavioral (F38-Daily Life)- Var #212, SOCSUPP
Origin: Medical Outcomes Study (MOS),
19. Symptom Construct
Question(s): Average of 34 items measuring occurrence and severity of symptoms. Summary score range 0-3, where a higher score indicates
a more favorable health state.
WHI: Psychosocial/Behavioral (F38-Daily Life) = Var #213, SYMPTOM
Origin: “PEPI, national, and other surveys”

Depressive symptoms (Not in Table 7, but added into the text)

Shortened CES-D/IDS screening instrument.

PSHTDEP range 0-1, higher score indicating a greater likelihood of depression. Cutoffs of 0.06 and 0.009 have been used to indicate depression (we use 0.06 in the optimism/cynical hostility paper and in the current paper on breast reconstructive surgery).