Factors affecting completion of the SF-36 in older people
Open Access
- 25 April 2006
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Age and Ageing
- Vol. 35 (4), 376-381
- https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afl003
Abstract
Objective: to examine the influence of specific clinical impairments and disabilities on the completion of the SF-36 health status measure among older people. Design: Prospective observational study. Setting/Participants: An SF-36 was administered to 245 subjects aged 65 years and older. Subjects were chosen by sampling from a variety of inpatient, outpatient and community sources to ensure a range of relevant disabilities. Measurements: response rates, overall rates of completion, completion of individual questions and time taken to complete. Results: severe functional impairment (Barthel index ≤12) was found in 22.4% (51/228), cognitive impairment in 54.1% (132/244), depressed mood in 77.0% (151/196) and visuospatial dysfunction in 71.3% (134/188). The median number of impairments was three (interquartile range 1–4). Specific physical impairments were visual in 13.2% (31/235), hearing in 30.2% (74/245), impaired manual dexterity in 18.0% (44/245) and dysphasia in 23% (55/239). In multivariate analyses, global functional impairment (P = 0.006), cognitive impairment (P = 0.0001) and impaired manual dexterity (P = 0.005) were significantly associated with more dimensions uncompleted, whilst cognitive impairment (P = 0.001), age (P = 0.006) and visuospatial dysfunction (P = 0.0003) were significantly associated with longer completion times. Conclusion: the most striking finding of the study was that global rather than specific physical and mental dysfunction was associated with the inability to complete the SF-36 questionnaire. The difficulty appears to lie in the performance of a complex task, rather than with specific aspects of the task which could be overcome by adaptation or aids. Our experience is that this relatively complex questionnaire does not adequately measure functional health status in disabled older people because of non-completion and may therefore overestimate the health of populations.Keywords
This publication has 24 references indexed in Scilit:
- Validity of the Clock-Drawing Test as a Screening Tool for Cognitive Impairment in the ElderlyAmerican Journal of Epidemiology, 2004
- Qualitative Comparison of the Reliability of Health Status Assessments With the EuroQol and SF-36 Questionnaires After StrokeStroke, 1998
- A 12-Item Short-Form Health SurveyMedical Care, 1996
- The SF-36 Health Survey Questionnaire: Is it Suitable for use with Older Adults?Age and Ageing, 1995
- Clock‐drawing and dementia in the community: A longitudinal studyInternational Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 1993
- The MOS 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36)Medical Care, 1993
- The MOS 36-ltem Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36)Medical Care, 1992
- A SIMPLE SCREENING TEST FOR HEARING IMPAIRMENT IN ELDERLY PATIENTSAge and Ageing, 1988
- Development and validation of a geriatric depression screening scale: A preliminary reportJournal of Psychiatric Research, 1982
- “Mini-mental state”: A practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinicianJournal of Psychiatric Research, 1975