Crossover randomized controlled trial of the electronic version of the Chinese SF-36

Abstract

Objectives: to verify the feasibility and reliability of the electronic version of Chinese SF-36 based on the Quality-of-Life-Recorder. Design: A crossover randomized controlled trial, comparing a paper-based and an electronic version of the Chinese SF-36, was conducted. According to generated random numbers, interviewees were asked to fill out either the electronic version or the paper version first. The second version was filled in after a pause of at least 10 min. Settings and participants: One group of 100 medical students at the School of Medicine of Zhejiang University and the other group of 50 outpatients at a clinic for general practice in Hangzhou City (China) were eventually recruited in this study. Results: The acceptance of the electronic version was good (60% of medical students and 84% of outpatients preferred the electronic version). At the level of eight-scale scores, the mean-difference for each scale (except for general health) between the two versions was less than 5%. At the level of 36 questions, the percentage of "exact agreement" ranged within 64%~99%; the percentage of "global agreement" ranged within 72%~99%; 77% of the kappa coefficients demonstrated "good/excellent agreement" and 23% of the kappa coefficients demonstrated "medium agreement". Conclusion: This study, for the first time, can provide empirical basis for the confirmation of the feasibility and reliability of the electronic version of the Chinese SF-36 and may provide an impulse towards widespread deployment of the Quality-of-Life-Recorder in Chinese populations.

Measurement equivalence of touch‐screen computerized and paper‐based diabetes‐specific quality‐of‐life questionnaires

“…Approximately four‐fifths of the patients with diabetes in this study preferred to use the cD‐QOL over the pD‐QOL. This is consistent with other studies that found that patients preferred a computerized mode over a paper‐based mode of administration . In addition, most of the patients with diabetes in this study reported that the cD‐QOL was easy to use, even though 43.7% of them had either rarely or never used a PC in their daily life.…”

Influence of health-related quality of life on health service utilization in addition to socio-demographic and morbidity variables among primary care patients in China

“…Though the study by Chen et al (2007) had identified the feasibility and reliability of the electronic version of the Chinese SF-36 and its advantages over the paper version, we provided both the electronic and the paper version of the Chinese SF-36 as instruments for assessing HRQOL. When the respondents chose the paper version, the data were first checked and then manually entered into the electronic SF-36 to get scores of subscales automatically.…”

Reliability of short form-36 in an Internet- and a pen-and-paper version

“…Short Form-36 (SF-36) is widely used in medical research as a general health measure [7,8]. Three studies have compared an Internet version of SF-36 with a pen-and-paper version and calculated test-retest reliability [9][10][11]. In these studies the patients filled in the second version of SF-36 within a few hours after the first version.…”