Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2015 Oct 7;97(19):1628-34.
doi: 10.2106/JBJS.O.00030.

Scoring the SF-36 in Orthopaedics: A Brief Guide

Nicholas C Laucis  1 , Ron D Hays  2 , Timothy Bhattacharyya  1
Affiliations
Review

Scoring the SF-36 in Orthopaedics: A Brief Guide

Nicholas C Laucis et al. J Bone Joint Surg Am. .

Abstract

The Short Form-36 (SF-36) is the most widely used health-related quality-of-life measure in research to date. There are currently two sources for the SF-36 and scoring instructions: licensing them from Optum, Inc., or obtaining them from publicly available documentation from the RAND Corporation. The SF-36 yields eight scale scores and two summary scores. The physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS) scores were derived using an orthogonal-factor analytic model that forced the PCS and MCS to be uncorrelated, and it has been shown to contribute to an inflation of the MCS in patients with substantial physical disability. Oblique scoring can reduce this inflation of the MCS in orthopaedic studies. Spreadsheets to score the SF-36, along with a copy of the questionnaire, are provided.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Derivation hierarchy of the SF-36 (Short Form-36). The SF-36 was derived from the original MOS 149-item profile. Many derivations of the first SF-36 (Ware-36) have been released, including shortened versions consisting of twelve and eight items, updated survey layouts (SF-36v2 and VR-36), and a publicly available version, the RAND-36.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Garratt A, Schmidt L, Mackintosh A, Fitzpatrick R. Quality of life measurement: bibliographic study of patient assessed health outcome measures. BMJ. 2002. June 15;324(7351):1417. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Turner-Bowker DM, Bartley BJ, Ware JE. SF-36® health survey and “SF” bibliography. 3rd ed. Lincoln, RI: QualityMetric Incorporated; 2002.
    1. Tarlov AR, Ware JE Jr, Greenfield S, Nelson EC, Perrin E, Zubkoff M. The Medical Outcomes Study. An application of methods for monitoring the results of medical care. JAMA. 1989. August 18;262(7):925-30. - PubMed
    1. Stewart AL, Sherbourne CD, Hays RD, Wells KB, Nelson EC, Kamberg CJ, Rogers WH, Berry SH, Ware JE Jr. Summary and discussion of MOS measures. In: Stewart AL, Ware JE Jr, editors. Measuring functioning and well-being: the medical outcomes study approach. Durham, NC: Duke University Press; 1992. p. 345-71.
    1. Bindman AB, Keane D, Lurie N. Measuring health changes among severely ill patients. The floor phenomenon. Med Care. 1990. December;28(12):1142-52. - PubMed

Publication types