Validation of the Chinese Version of the SF-36 Health Survey Questionnaire in People Undergoing Physical Examinations

Abstract

Objectives. The SF-36 is a generic measure of health status and has gained popularity as a measure of outcome in a wide variety of patient groups and surveys. The Chinese version of SF- 36 was introduced in 1995 and its reliability and validity in the general population has been reported. However, the reliability and validity has never been reported in clinical settings. Therefore, we provide estimates of the reliability and test validity of the Chinese SF-36 in people undergoing physical examinations. Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted among individuals who underwent physical examinations in the China Medical University Hospital in 1996. A total of 434 individuals over the age of 18 years were recruited. The overall completion rate was 68.7%. Outcome was evaluated by the Short Form 36 (SF-36), a short questionnaire with 36 items measuring eight multi-item variables: physical functioning, social functioning, role limitation due to physical problems, role limitation due to emotional problems, mental health, vitality, pain and general health. Results. All variables passed tests for item-internal consistency and item-discriminant validity. Analyses of internal consistency coefficients ranged from a low of 0.66 for the bodily pain variable to a high of 0.89 for social and physical functioning variables. Validation by factor analysis yielded results remarkably similar to those proposed by the authors who developed the SF-36. We found significant differences in physical-related variables such as physical functioning, and bodily pain between different age groups, and significant differences in all variables except for bodily pain in different categories of minor psychiatric morbidity. Conclusions. In general, the Chinese version of the SF-36 is reliable and valid for measuring health status in people undergoing physical examination.