COMPARISON OF THE MEDICAL OUTCOMES STUDY SHORT-FORM 36-ITEM HEALTH SURVEY IN BLACK PATIENTS AND WHITE PATIENTS WITH ACUTE CHEST PAIN

Few data are available regarding the performance of the Medical Outcom es Study (MOS) Short-Form 36-Item Health Survey (SF-36) in black patie nts. In this article, the reliability and validity of the MOS SF-36 is compared in a population of black patients and white patients with ac ute chest pain. The MOS SF-36 was administered to 1,160 patients (31% black) who presented to the emergency department of an urban teaching hospital with acute chest pain from October 1990 to May 1992. In unadj usted analyses, black patients had significantly lower scores compared with white patients for several dimensions of the SF-36. Correlations among the eight subscales were similar, and the internal consistency of each of the eight subscales was excellent for both groups (Cronbach 's coefficient alpha range .64 to .93). Each subscale had similar clin ical and nonclinical correlates in black patients and white patients. In multivariate models, race was not a significant independent correla te of any of the eight subscales. Thus, the MOS SF-36 had similar reli ability and validity in this population of black patients and white pa tients with acute chest pain who presented to an urban teaching hospit al. If these findings are confirmed in other populations, they suggest that results from the MOS SF-36 may be interpreted similarly in black patients and white patients, after adjusting for clinical and sociode mographic data. Whether these findings are generalizable to other cond itions and less acute settings requires further investigation.