THE SWEDISH SF-36 HEALTH SURVEY II - EVALUATION OF CLINICAL VALIDITY - RESULTS FROM POPULATION STUDIES OF ELDERLY AND WOMEN IN GOTHENBORG

The validity of the Swedish SF-36 Health Survey was examined, replicat ing techniques used in the U.S. validation. Principal components analy sis was used to test the internal structure of the eight SF-36 scales in relation to hypothesized associations with the two major dimensions of health-physical and mental. Hypothesized relationships between sca les and external criteria were also examined by means of clinical grou p contrasts. Both the principal components analysis and clinical group contrasts largely replicated U.S. findings, which supported the cross -cultural stability of the SF-36 in Sweden. As expected, the Physical Functioning and Mental Health scales were most sensitive to clinical m anifestations of medical and mental health, respectively. The General Health scale was associated more with physical than mental health. How ever, the Social Functioning scale and particularly the Vitality scale were more related to mental health in Sweden than in the correspondin g U.S. study. Cultural differences and variation in study samples and selection criteria were suggested as possible explanatory factors for these differences. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.