The Short Form 20 (SF-20) is an abbreviated form of the Rand Medical Outcome Study (MOS) instrument. It can serve as either a general health status measure or an outcome measure in clinical studies.
Health items in the survey:
(1) physical
(2) role functioning
(3) social functioning
(4) mental health
(5) general health perception
(6) pain
Example Question: (1) In general, would you say that your health is:
|
Response |
Points |
Points Adjusted for Ordinal Response Scale |
|
excellent |
5 |
5 |
|
very good |
4 |
4.36 |
|
good |
3 |
3.43 |
|
fair |
2 |
1.99 |
|
poor |
1 |
1 |
(for point adjustment, see page 456, McDowell and Newell)
Scoring
subscore =
= SUM(points for each of the component questions)
total score =
= SUM(all 6 subscores)
|
Dimension |
Question |
Maximal Points |
|
physical |
2a-2f |
18 |
|
role functioning |
4, 5 |
6 |
|
social functioning |
6 |
6 |
|
mental health |
7-11 |
30 |
|
health perception |
1, 12 |
25 |
|
pain |
3 |
6 |
Availability:
Dr Ware has formed a company for distributing the SF-36 called Quality Metric, Inc.
401-334-8800
Some of the SF questions are available at amIhealthy.com
