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Medical Outcomes Study: 36-Item Short Form Survey

As part of the Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) — a multi-year, multi-site study to explain variations in patient outcomes — RAND developed the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36). SF-36 is a set of generic, coherent, and easily administered quality-of-life measures. These measures rely upon patient self-reporting and are now widely utilized by managed care organizations and by Medicare for routine monitoring and assessment of care outcomes in adult patients.

Available Documents

Terms and Conditions for Using the SF-36 — 2009

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MOS 36-Item Short Form Survey Instrument (SF-36)

Survey Instrument (English) PDF file Survey Instrument (Arabic)

Scoring Instructions for MOS 36-Item Short Form Survey Instrument (SF-36) — 2009

Scoring Instructions (HTML) PDF file Scoring Instructions (PDF)

Evaluating the SF-36 Health Survey (Version 2) in Older Vietnamese Americans — 2008

Ngo-Metzger Q, Sorkin DH, Mangione CM, Gandek B, Hays RD. (2008), Journal of Aging and Health, [Epub April 1 2008], Vol. 20, No. 4, June 1 2008, pp. 420-436.

The SF-36® Health Survey (Version 2; SF-36) was evaluated among older Vietnamese Americans to determine whether underlying dimensions of physical and mental health were similar to those of other groups in the United States.

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Reliability of an Arabic Version of the RAND 36-Item Health Survey and its Equivalence to the US-English Version — 1998

Coons, SJ, Alabdulmohsin, SA, Draugalis, JR, & Hays, RD. (1998), Medical Care, 36, 428-432.

This article contains a discussion of reliability of using the Arabic SF-36 instrument.

More Information about Summary Scores

For those interested in information about the physical and mental health summary scores and the work done to create a single score, we suggest the following articles:

What is the Relationship Between the Minimally Important Difference and Health State Utility Values? The Case of the SF-6-D — 2003

Walters SJ, Brazier JE. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, Vol. 1, No. 1, April 2003, p. 4.

Other instruments from MOS Read More at HQLO.com

The Estimation of a Preference-based Measure of Health from the SF-36 — 2002

Brazier J, Roberts J, Deverill M. Journal of Health Economics, Vol. 21, No. 2, March 2002, pp. 271-292.

Other instruments from MOS Read Abstract at ScienceDirect.com

Mapping the SF-12 to the EuroQol EQ-5D Index in a National US Sample — 2004

Franks P, Lubetkin EI, Gold MR, Tancredi DJ, Jia H. Medical Decision Making, Vol. 24, No. 3, May-June 2004, pp. 247-254.

Other instruments from MOS Read Abstract at SagePub.com

Measuring Function and Well-Being: The Medical Outcomes Study Approach — 1992

Stewart AL, Ware JE., eds. (1992)

Order Document available for order at dukeupress.edu

User's Manual for Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) Core Measures of Health-Related Quality of Life — 1995

Hays, RD, Sherbourne, CD, Mazel, RM. RAND Corporation, MR-162-RC, 1995.

This manual summarizes the MOS measures and presents psychometric results from the MOS. It is designed to be a companion to the book, Measuring Function and Well-Being: The Medical Outcomes Study Approach.

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