IS THE SHORT-FORM-36 (SF-36) SUITABLE FOR ROUTINE HEALTH OUTCOMES ASSESSMENT IN HEALTH-CARE FOR OLDER-PEOPLE - EVIDENCE FROM PRELIMINARY WORK IN COMMUNITY-BASED HEALTH-SERVICES IN ENGLAND

Study objective - To examine the short form 36 (SF-36) health status m easure when used to assess older people's views of the outcome of comm unity based health care. Design - Completion of a structured questionn aire, before and after intervention alongside in-depth interviews with a subsample of the interviewees. Setting - Community based continence and mental health services in two health authorities in the North Wes t Health Region. Patients - Forty seven older people newly referred to mental health services or continence services between December 1992 a nd April 1993 participated. Main results - The SF-36 showed minimal ch ange over time for both patient groups. The more detailed in-depth int erviews showed that people experienced positive changes and derived va lue from contact with services in a number of important ways. For many reasons these benefits were not reflected in their SF-36 scores. Conc lusions - The SF-36 is not likely to be the ((measure of choice)) for this type of evaluation, particularly where it involves older patient groups who have high levels of comorbidity. The content of the SF-36 a nd its lack of detail for individual assessment of change means it mas ks rather than illuminates patients' views of outcome.