MAKING SENSE OF AMBIGUITY - EVALUATION OF INTERNAL RELIABILITY AND FACE VALIDITY OF THE SF-36 QUESTIONNAIRE IN WOMEN PRESENTING WITH MENORRHAGIA

Objective-To determine the face validity and internal reliability of t he short form 36 (SF 36) health survey questionnaire in women presenti ng with menorrhagia. Design-Postal survey of women recruited by their general practitioners followed by interviews of a selected subsample. Patients-348 women who had consulted their general practitioner with e xcessive menstrual bleeding and completed questionnaires after treatme nt. 49 women selected from this group were interviewed in depth about their health status, and requested to complete the SF 36 questionnaire . Main measures-Subjective accounts of functioning and wellbeing as me asured by the eight scales of the SF 36 questionnaire. Results-Data fr om the postal survey indicated that the ''general health perceptions'' and ''mental health'' scales of the SF 36 questionnaire had lower int ernal reliability coefficients than documented elsewhere. In the follo w up interviews several questions on the SF 36 questionnaire were comm ented on as inappropriate or difficult to answer for patients with hea vy menstrual bleeding. Conclusions-Some questions on the SF 36 questio nnaire were difficult to answer for this group of patients. Such probl ems can adversely effect the validity of the measure. It is suggested that comments of patients upon measures such as the SF 36 questionnair e could both determine the appropriateness of such measures for given studies and influence questionnaire design.