USE OF THE SHORT FORM-36 TO DETECT THE INFLUENCE OF UPPER GASTROINTESTINAL-DISEASE ON SELF-REPORTED HEALTH-STATUS

Patient-centred outcome measures such as the Short Form-36 (SF-36) hav e been developed to assess the impact of ill health and medical interv entions on self-reported health status. The objective of the study was to assess the impact of gastrointestinal disease upon health status a s measured by the SF-36 physical and mental health component scores (P CS and MCS) and to assess whether these component scores might be an a ppropriate outcome measure for use in clinical research in gastroenter ology. The subjects were 364 patients aged between 18 and 64 years who had been prescribed proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) by general practiti oners in Oxfordshire. The general practices participating identified p atients who had been prescribed PPIs. The data were abstracted from th e general practice medical records of these patients concerning gastro intestinal diagnoses and other prescribed medications. The patients we re sent the SF-36 questionnaire by post and the PCS and MCS scores wer e derived, which were adjusted for age and sex and compared with the s cores of the general population of the Oxford region. Co-morbidity was assessed by the extent to which non-gastric medications were also use d. The commonest diagnoses were oesophagitis/gastro-oesophageal reflux and indigestion. People with these diagnoses had significantly lower health status than the general population. Differences persisted when the results were controlled for the possible effects of co-morbidity. It was concluded that the SF-36 is sensitive to the impact of gastroin testinal disease on health status. (C) 1998 Lippincott-Raven Publisher s.