Pilot Study on Equivalence Between the Electronic and Paper Version of the Chinese SF-36

Abstract

We aim to verify the equivalence between the paper and electronic version of Chinese SF-36 administered using the Quality-of-Life-Recorder. A crossover trial of the electronic and paper versions of the Chinese SF-36 was performed as follows: the interviewees were asked to fill out either an electronic version or a paper version firstly according to their own willingness. After at least 30 min interval, interviewees were required to complete the other version. This study used a convenience sample of medical college freshman participating in courses at the College of Medicine of Zhejiang University (China). About 100 subjects were eventually recruited and the response rate was 90.9%. The mean difference of completion time between the two versions was caused by an impact of order sequence and advantages of the electronic version over the paper version were eventually verified. At both the level of eight subscales and the level of 36 items, score equivalence was achieved between two versions. Thereby this study provided an empirical basis for the identification of the equivalence between the paper version and electronic version of the Chinese SF-36 and can be regarded as a pilot towards further investigations on how to facilitate widespread deployment of the Quality-of-Life-Recorder in Asian populations.