THE MOS SF-36 HEALTH SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE IN SEVERE CHRONIC AIR-FLOW LIMITATION - COMPARISON WITH THE NOTTINGHAM HEALTH PROFILE

This study documents the cross-sectional, health-related quality of li fe (HRQOL) measures obtained at baseline for patients with severe chro nic airways limitation (CAL) being assessed for home oxygen therapy (H OT) at the Flinders Medical Centre, Adelaide, South Australia. Two gen eric quality of life instruments, the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) and the Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) short form 36-item questionnaire (SF-36), were administered by interview to the same patients to permit comparisons to be made between the two instruments. SF-36 mean scores were also compared with scores obtained in separate studies of a Sout h Australian elderly general population and of groups of Australian su bjects with various medical and psychiatric conditions. NHP mean score s were compared with scores from an elderly group of Adelaide resident s from a household survey. HRQOL measures were obtained for 60 patient s, 32 males and 28 females. At assessment for HOT, patients with sever e CAL were experiencing severe impairment in their quality of life in comparison to age-matched South Australian norms, with physical disabi lity the major limitation. There were several significant correlations between the domains of the SF-36 and the NHP which were predominantly gender-specific. Only small decrements in mental health were found wi th the SF-36 questionnaire. The SF-36 and the NHP appear to provide di screpant information for severely disabled CAL patients for the subjec tive domains of emotional and mental health.