Validity and reliability of the SF-36 in Chilean older adults: the ALEXANDROS study

Abstract

To validate short-form-36 health survey (SF-36) with specific scoring algorithm obtained in a large sample of Chilean older people and to associate quality of life in this sample with social and health related factors. A cross-sectional study on 2,143 community-living subjects aged 60-92 years (33 % men and 67 % women) conducted in Santiago, Chile. Scores in 8 scales of SF-36-physical function (PF), role physical (RP), bodily pain (BP), general health (GH), vitality (VT), social functioning (SF), role emotional (RE) and mental health (MH)-, were calculated. Factor analysis was used to extract two principal factors and logistic regression model was applied to estimate its association with socio-demographic and health variables. The internal consistency of scales was high (Cronbach's alpha 0.86-0.87). Factor analysis retained two factors: mental (MCS) and physical (PCS) components accounting for 65.3 % of total variance (55.3 and 10.0 % respectively). High correlations (0.61-0.94) between MCS and MH, V, RE and SF were obtained. PCS correlated highest (0.72-0.86) with RP, PF and BP. Self-perceived symptoms of depression (GDS-15 C5) was the main variable explaining low scores in both MCS and PCS (adjusted OR = 26.9; 95 % CI: 15.3-47.2; OR = 3.4; 95 % CI: 2.1-5.5, respectively). We have demonstrated the reliability and validity of SF-36 questionnaire to evaluate health related quality of life, reporting Chilean-Specific factor score coefficients for MCS and PCS based in national Chilean means and standard deviations for older people. After adjusting by age and gender, the main predictors of low health related QoL in Chilean older people were selfperceived symptoms of depression, the presence of two or more chronic diseases and illiteracy. Important gender inequalities were observed in all of these results, being consistently less favorable in women than in men.

Aging, Gender and Quality of Life (AGEQOL) study: factors associated with good quality of life in older Brazilian community-dwelling adults

“…The physical and psychosocial health and socio-demographic variables examined in this study were evaluated using ordinal logistic regression, which resulted in the following five variables being associated with good QOL for both genders: self-rated health, depressive symptoms, years of education, chronic diseases, and family dysfunction. Additionally, good QOL for men was associated with retirement, mixed living arrangements, and physical activity, whereas good QOL for women was associated with physical activity; these results are similar to those of other studies [ 27 , 30 , 31 ]. These factors represent targets for policy action because they have the potential to affect the health of older individuals in the general population.…”

“…In general, the prevalence of chronic disease among older people in Brazil is high and differs between genders [ 11 ], resulting in negative repercussions on QOL [ 43 ]. Preventive actions and the promotion of policies for controlling the effect on health conditions could result in good QOL in this population [ 30 ].…”

Hearing and quality of life in older adults

“…The general health subscale measures overall health, which combines aspects of both physical and emotional health. As such, each of these factors load onto a general health construct (Lera, Fuentes‐García, Sánchez, & Albala, ; Meng et al., ). Although general health measures some aspects of emotional health, the mental health index validly and reliably measures only emotional health (Lera et al., ; Meng et al., ).…”

Health-related quality of life among healthy elderly Iranians: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature

“…In Germany, SF-36 scores ranged from 59.46 to 88.74 for males and from 57.25 to 84.24 for females, depending on the domain [ 50 ]. On the other hand, scholars in Chile have found rather low values (ranging from 49.1 to 55.7 for males and from 43.8 to 53.3 for females) [ 51 ].…”