The SF Community - Acknowledgements

Order the manual

Permission to use

Scoring Service

SF-36® Health Survey Update
John E. Ware, Jr., Ph.D.

Acknowledgments

Development and validation of the SF-36 Health Survey was supported by a grant from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation to The Health Institute, New England Medical Center Hospitals (J. E. Ware, Jr., Principal Investigator). Development of the SF-36 PCS and MCS component summary measures was supported by unrestricted research grants for the International Quality of Life Assessment (IQOLA) Project from GlaxoSmithKline, Inc., Research Triangle Park, North Carolina and Schering-Plough Corporation, Kenilworth, New Jersey (J. E. Ware, Jr., Principal Investigator).

The IQOLA Project was sponsored by unrestricted research grants from GlaxoSmithKline Inc., Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and Schering-Plough Corporation, Kenilworth, New Jersey. Associate sponsors include Astra AB, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Parke-Davis, Pharmacia, Proctor & Gamble Pharmaceuticals, Searle, Solvay, and Synthelabo. Additional support has also been provided by more than 50 other pharmaceutical companies.

SF-36® is a registered trademark of the Medical Outcomes Trust.

Figures List
Figure 1:  SF-36® measurement model
Figure 2:  SF-36® scales measure physical and mental components of health
Figure 3:   SF-36® health profile: adults with asthma compared with u.s. norm
Figure 4:  Scoring of SF-36® profile, adults with asthma
Figure 5:  Interpreting treatment outcomes among adults with asthma

Table List
Table 1:   Summary of information about SF-36® scales and physical and mental component summary measures

References
Aaronson NK, Acquadro C, Alonso J, Apolone G, Bucquet D, Bullinger M, Bungay K, Fukuhara S, Gandek B, Keller S, Razavi R, Sanson-Fisher M, Sullivan S, Wood-Dauphinee S, Wagner A, Ware JE. International Quality of Life Assessment (IQOLA) Project. Qual Life Res 1992; 1:349-51.

Alonso J, Prieto L, Antó JM. La versión española del 'SF-36® Health Survey' (Cuestionairo de Salud SF-36®): un instrumento para la medida de los resultados clínicos. Med Clin (Barc) 1995; 104(20):771-6.

American Psychological Association. Standards for Educational and Psychological Tests. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 1974.

Apolone G, Cifani S, Liberati MC, Mosconi P. Questionario sullo stato di salute SF-36®. Traduzione e validazione della versione italiana: risultati del progetto IQOLA. Metodologia e Didattica Clinica 1997; 5:86-94.

Beaton DE, Bombardier C, Hogg-Johnson S. Choose your tool: a comparison of the psychometric properties of five generic health status instruments in workers with soft tissue injuries. Qual Life Res 1994; 3:50-6.

Benedetti E, Matas AJ, Hakim N, Fasola C, Gillingham K, McHugh L, Najarian JS. Renal transplantation for patients 60 years or older: a single-institution experience. Ann Surg 1994; 220(4):445-60.

Bergner M, Bobbitt RA, Carter WB, Gilson BS. The Sickness Impact Profile: Development and final revision of a health status measure. Med Care 1981; 19(8):787-805.

Berwick DM. The double edge of knowledge. Journal of the American Medical Association 1991; 266(6):841-2.

Beusterien KM, Steinwald B, Ware JE. Usefulness of the SF-36® Health Survey in measuring health outcomes in the depressed elderly. J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol 1996; 9.

Brazier JE, Harper R, Jones NMB, O'Cathain A, Thomas KJ, Usherwood T, Westlake L. Validating the SF-36® Health Survey Questionnaire: new outcome measure for primary care. British Medical Journal 1992; 305:160-4.

Brazier, JE, Roberts J, Deverill M. The estimation of a preference-based measure of health from the SF-36. Journal of Health Economics 2002; 21: 271-292.

Brook RH, Ware JE, Davies-Avery A, Stewart AL, Donald CA, Rogers WH, Williams KN, Johnston SA. Overview of adult health status measures fielded in RAND's Health Insurance Study. Med Care 1979; 17(7,Special Supplement):1-131.

Bullinger M. German translation and psychometric testing of the SF-36® Health Survey: preliminary results from the IQOLA Project. Soc Sci Med 1995; 41(10):1359-66.

Coulehan JL, Schulberg HC, Block MR, Madonia MJ, Rodrigues E. Treating depressed primary care patients improves their physical, mental, and social functioning. Arch Intern Med 1997; 157:1113-20.

Davies AR, Ware JE. Measuring Health Perceptions in the Health Insurance Experiment. Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation, 1981; R-2711-HHS. (Health Insurance Experiment Series.

Dupuy HJ. The Psychological General Well-Being (PGWB) index. In: Wenger NK, Mattson ME, Furberg CD, Elinson J Eds. Assessment of Quality of Life in Clinical Trials of Cardiovascular Disease. New York: Le Jacq Publishing, Inc., 1984: 170-83.

Fukuhara, S., Ware, J.E., Kosinski, M., Wada, S., Gandek, B. “Psychometric and clinical tests of validity of the Japanese SF-36 Health Survey”, Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 1998; 51(11), 1045-53.

Gandek B, Ware JE. Methods for Validating and Norming Translations of Health Status Questionnaires: The IQOLA Project Approach. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 1998; 51(11): 953-959.

Garratt AM, Ruta DA, Abdalla MI, Buckingham JK, Russell IT. The SF-36® Health Survey Questionnaire: an outcome measure suitable for routine use within the NHS? British Medical Journal 1993; 306:1440-4.

Garratt AM, Ruta DA, Abdalla MI, Russell IT. SF-36® Health Survey Questionnaire: II. responsiveness to changes in health status in four common clinical conditons. Quality in Health Care 1994; 3:186-92.

Garratt AM, Schmidt L, Mackintosh A, Fitzpatrick R. Quality of life measurement: bibliographic study of patient assessed health outcome measures. British Medical Journal 2002; 324:1417-1421.

Haley, S.M., McHorney, C.A., and Ware, J.E. "Evaluation of the MOS SF 36 Physical Functioning scale (PF 10): I. Unidimensionality and Reproducibility of the Rasch item scale," Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 1994;47(6):671-684.

Hulka BS, Cassel JC. The AAFP-UNC study of the organization, utilization and assessment of primary medical care. Am J Public Health 1973; 63(6):494-501.

Jacobson AM, de Groot M, Samson JA. The evaluation of two measures of quality of life in patients with type I and type II diabetes. Diabetes Care 1994; 17(4):267-74.

Jenkinson C, Coulter A, Wright L. Short Form 36 (SF-36®) Health Survey Questionnaire: normative data for adults of working age. British Medical Journal 1993; 306:1437-40.

Jette DU, Downing J. Health status of individuals entering a cardiac rehabilitation program as measured by the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Survey (SF-36®). Phys Ther 1994; 74(6):521-7.

Kantz ME, Harris WJ, Levitsky K, Ware JE, Davies AR. Methods for assessing condition-specific and generic functional status outcomes after total knee replacement. Med Care 1992; 30(Suppl 5):MS240-MS252.

Kappelle LJ, Adams HP, Heffner ML, Torner JC, Gomez F, Biller J. Prognosis of young adults with ischemic stroke: a long-term follow-up study assessing recurrent vascular events and functional outcome in the Iowa Registry of Stroke in young adults. troke 1994; 25(7):1360-5.

Katz JN, Larson MG, Phillips CB, Fossel AH, Liang MH. Comparative measurement sensitivity of short and longer health status instruments. Med Care 1992; 30(10):917-25.

Keller, S.D., Bayliss, M.S., Ware, J.E., Hsu, M.A., Damiano, A.M., Goss, T.F. “Comparison of Responses to SF-36 Health Survey Questions with One-Week and Four-Week Recall Periods”, Health Services Research, 1997; 32(3): 367-84.

Kosinski MK, Bayliss, M, Bjorner JB, Ware JE. Improving Estimates of SF-36® Health Survey Scores for Respondents in Missing Data. Medical Outcomes Trust Monitor, Fall 2000; 5 (1): 8-10.

Kravitz RL, Greenfield S, Rogers WH, Manning WG, Zubkoff M, Nelson E, Tarlov AR, Ware JE. Differences in the mix of patients among medical specialties and systems of care: results from the Medical Outcomes Study. Journal of the American Medical Association 1992; 267(12):1617-23.

Krousel-Wood MA, Re RN. Health status assessment in a hypertension section of an internal medicine clinic. Am J Med Sci 1994; 308(4):211-7.

Krousel-Wood MA, McCune TW, Abdoh A, Re RN. Predicting work status for patients in an occupational medicine setting who report back pain. Arch Fam Med 1994; 3:349-55.

Kurtin PS, Davies AR, Meyer KB, DeGiacomo JM, Kantz ME. Patient-based health status measures in outpatient dialysis: early experiences in developing an outcomes assessment program. Med Care 1992; 30(5 Suppl):MS136-MS149.

Lansky D, Butler JBV, Waller FT. Using health status measures in the hospital setting: from acute care to 'outcomes management'. Med Care 1992; 30(Suppl 5):MS57-MS73.

McCallum J. The SF-36® in an Australian sample: validating a new, generic health status measure. Aust J Public Health 1995; 19(2):160-6.

McDowell I, Newell C. Measuring Health: A Guide to Rating Scales and Questionnaires (second edition). New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

McHorney, C.A., Haley, S.M., Ware, J.E. “Evaluation of the MOS SF-36 Physical Functioning Scale (PF-10): II. Comparison of Relative Precision Using Likert and Rasch Scoring Methods”, Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 1997; 50(4):451-461.

McHorney CA, Ware JE. Construction and validation of an alternate form general mental health scale for the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 36-Item Health Survey. Med Care 1995; 33(1):15-28.

McHorney CA, Ware JE, Lu JFR, Sherbourne CD. The MOS 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36®): III. tests of data quality, scaling assumptions and reliability across diverse patient groups. Med Care 1994; 32(4):40-66.

McHorney CA, Ware JE, Raczek AE. The MOS 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36®): II. psychometric and clinical tests of validity in measuring physical and mental health constructs. Med Care 1993; 31(3):247-63.

McHorney CA, Ware JE, Rogers W, Raczek A, Lu JFR. The validity and relative precision of MOS short- and long-form health status scales and Dartmouth COOP charts: results from the Medical Outcomes Study. Med Care 1992; 30(Suppl 5):MS253-MS265.

Medical Outcomes Trust. Medical Outcomes Trust: Improving Medical Outcomes from the Patient's Point of View. Boston, MA: Medical Outcomes Trust, 1991.

Meyer KB, Espindle DM, DeGiacomo JM, Jenuleson CS, Kurtin PS, Davies AR. Monitoring dialysis patients' health status. Am J Kidney Dis 1994; 24(2):267-79.

NCQA, HEDIS® 2002 Specifications for the Medicare Health Outcomes Survey. Washington DC: National Committee for Quality Assurance, 2002.

Nerenz DR, Repasky DP, Whitehouse FW, Kahkonen DM. Ongoing assessment of health status in patients with diabetes mellitus. Med Care 1992; 30(Suppl 5):MS112-MS124.

Okamoto LJ, Noonan M, DeBoisblanc BP, Kellerman DJ. Fluticasone propionate improves quality of life in patients with asthma requiring oral corticosteroids. Annals of Allergy and Asthma Immunology 1996; 76:455-61.

Osterhaus JT, Townsend RJ, Gandek B, Ware JE. Measuring the functional status and well-being of patients with migraine headaches. Headache 1994; 34(6):337-43.

Patrick DL, Bush JW, Chen MM. Toward an operational definition of health. J Health Soc Behav 1973; 14:6-21.

Phillips RC, Lansky DJ. Outcomes management in heart valve replacement surgery: early experience. J Heart Valve Dis 1992; 1(1):42-50.

Raczek, A.E., Ware, J.E., Jr., Bjorner, J.B., Gandek, B., Haley, S.M., Aaronson, N.K., Apolone, G., Bech, P., Brazier, J.E., Bullinger, M., Sullivan, M. Comparison of Rasch and summated rating scales constructed from SF-36 physical functioning items in seven countries: Results from the IQOLA Project. International Quality of Life Assessment. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 1998;51(11):1203-14.

Rampal P, Martin C, Marquis P, Ware JE, Bonfils S. A quality of life study in five hundred and eighty-one duodenal ulcer patients. Scand J Gastroenterol 1994; 29(206):44-51.

Rector TS, Ormaza SM, Kubo SM. Health status of heart transplant recipients versus patients awaiting heart transplantation: a preliminary evaluation of the SF-36® Questionnaire. J Heart Lung Transplant 1993; 12(6 Pt 1):983-6.

Reynolds WJ, Rushing WA, Miles DL. The validation of a functional status index. J Health Soc Behav 1974; 15:271-89.

Rumsfield JS, MaWhinney S, McCarthy M, Shroyer AL, VillaNueva CB, O’Brien M, Moritz TE, Henderson WG, Grover FL, Sethi GK, Hammermeister KE. Health-Related Quality of Life as a Predictor of Mortality Following Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery. JAMA 1999; 218(14): 1298-1303

Stewart AL, Greenfield S, Hays RD, Wells K, Rogers WH, Berry SD, McGlynn EA, Ware JE. Functional status and well-being of patients with chronic conditions: results from the Medical Outcomes Study. JAMA 1989; 262(7):907-13.

Stewart AL, Hays RD, Ware JE. The MOS Short-form General Health Survey: reliability and validity in a patient population. Med Care 1988; 26(7):724-35.

Stewart AL, Ware JE. Measuring Functioning and Well-Being: The Medical Outcomes Study Approach. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1992.

Stewart AL, Ware JE, Brook RH. Advances in the measurement of functional status: Construction of aggregate indexes. Med Care 1981; 19(5):473-88.

Sullivan, M., Karlsson, J., Ware, J.E., Jr. SF-36® Hälsoenkät: Svensk Manual och Tolkningsguide (Swedish Manual and Interpretation Guide). Gothenburg: Sahlgrenska University Hospital, 1994.

Sullivan M, Karlsson J, Ware JE. The Swedish SF-36® Health Survey: I. evaluation of data quality, scaling assumption, reliability and construct validity across general populations in Sweden. Social Science Medical 1995; 41(10):1349-58.

Tsai C, Bayliss MS, Ware JE. SF-36® Health Survey Annotated Bibliography: Second Edition (1988-1996). Boston, MA: Health Assessment Lab, New England Medical Center, 1997.

Turner-Bowker, D.M., Bartley, P.J., Ware, J.E., Jr. SF-36® Health Survey & “SF” Bibliography: Third Edition (1988-2000). Lincoln, RI: QualityMetric Incorporated, 2002.

Vickrey BG, Hays RD, Graber J, Rausch R, Engel J, Brook RH. A health-related quality of life instrument for patients evaluated for epilepsy surgery. Med Care 1992; 30(4):299-319.

Viramontes JL, O'Brien B. Relationship between symptoms and health-related quality of life in chronic lung disease. J Gen Intern Med 1994; 9(1):46-8.

Wagner AK, Keller SD, Kosinski M, Baker GA, Jacoby A, Hsu M-A, Chadwick DW, Ware JE. Advances in methods for assessing the impact of epilepsy and antiepileptic drug therapy on patients' health-related quality of life. Qual Life Res 1995; 4:115-34.

Ware JE. How to Score the Revised MOS Short-Form Health Scale (SF-36®). Boston, MA: The Health Institute, New England Medical Center Hospitals, 1988.

Ware JE. Scales for measuring general health perceptions. Health Serv Res 1976; 11(4):396-415.

Ware JE. The status of health assessment 1994. Annu Rev Public Health 1995; 16:327-54.

Ware JE, Gandek B, the IQOLA Project Group. The SF-36® Health Survey: development and use in mental health research and the IQOLA Project. International Journal of Mental Health 1994; 23(2):49-73.

Ware JE, Gandek B, Keller SD, the IQOLA Project Group. Evaluating instruments used cross-nationally: methods from the IQOLA Project. In: Spilker B Ed. Quality of Life and Pharmacoeconomics in Clinical Trials. Second Edition edition New York: Raven Press, 1996: 681-92.

Ware JE, Keller SD, Gandek B, Brazier JE, Sullivan M, the IQOLA Project Group. Evaluating translations of health status questionnaires: methods from the IQOLA Project. Int J Technol Assess Health Care 1995; 11(3):525-51.

Ware, J.E., Kosinski M. SF-36 Physical and Mental Health Summary Scales: A Manual for Users of Version 1, Second Edition. Lincoln, RI: QualityMetric Incorporated, 2001.

Ware JE, Kosinski M, Bayliss MS, McHorney CA, Rogers WH, Raczek A. Comparison of methods for the scoring and statistical analysis of SF-36® health profiles and summary measures: summary of results from the Medical Outcomes Study. Med Care 1995; 33(Suppl. 4):AS264-AS279.

Ware J.E., Kosinski M., Dewey J.E. How to Score Version Two of the SF-36 Health Survey. Lincoln, RI: QualityMetric, Incorporated, 2000.

Ware JE, Kosinski M, Keller SD. SF-12®: How to Score the SF-12® Physical and Mental Health Summary Scales. Second Edition edition. Boston, MA: The Health Institute, New England Medical Center, 1995.

Ware JE, Kosinski M, Keller SK. SF-36® Physical and Mental Health Summary Scales: A User's Manual. Boston, MA: The Health Institute, 1994.

Ware JE, Kosinski M, Gandek BG, Aaronson N, Alonso J, Apolone G, Bech P, Brazier, J., Bullinger M, Kaasa S, Leplège,A., Prieto, L., Sullivan M. The Factor Structure of the SF-36® Health Survey in 10 Countries: Results from the International Quality of Life Assessment (IQOLA) Project. J Clin Epidemiol 1998; 51(11): 1159-1165.

Ware J.E., Kosinski M., Turner-Bowker D.M., Gandek B. How to Score Version 2 of he SF-12® Health Survey (With a Supplement Documenting Version 1). Lincoln, RI: QualityMetric Incorporated, 2002.

Ware JE, Sherbourne CD. The MOS 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36®): I. conceptual framework and item selection. Med Care 1992; 30(6):473-83.

Ware JE, Snow KK, Kosinski M, Gandek B. SF-36® Health Survey Manual and Interpretation Guide. Boston, MA: New England Medical Center, The Health Institute, 1993.

Weinberger M, Samsa GP, Hanlon JT, Schmader K, Doyle ME, Cowper PA, Uttech KM, Cohen HJ, Feussner JR. An evaluation of a brief health status measure in elderly veterans. J Am Geriatr Soc 1991; 39(7):691-4.

Wells KB, Burnam MA, Rogers W, Hays R, Camp P. The course of depression in adult outpatients: results from the Medical Outcomes Study. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1992; 49:788-94.

Return to article