Application of the general health status questionnaire SF36 to patients with gastrointestinal dysfunction : inital validation and validation as a measure of change

A study sought to determine whether the Short Form (SF36) Health Status Survey is a valid measure of health status and health change for patients with irritable bowel syndrome. The SF36 was self-administered by 116 patients with IBS at the commencement and end of a controlled clinical trial. Patients were recruited through 2 Sydney teaching hospitals and through private gastroenterologists during 1997 and treated with Chinese herbal medicine. The SF36 health concepts demonstrated internal consistency, construct validity and concurrent validity when applied to patients with significant bowel dysfunction. Patient scores on 2 health scales of the SF36 (bodily pain, general health) correlated significantly with the bowel symptom scores recorded by patients and gastroenterologists at the beginning and end of the trial period. Actively treated patients significantly improved their scores in 4 out of 8 of the health scales of the SF36 and reported overall improvement compared with inactively treated patients.