When should we measure functioning? A comparison of serial measurement of the MOS SF-36 in an Australian hospital sample with Australian norms

Objective: To compare the functional status at admission, discharge and thr ee months postdischarge of a group of elderly hospitalised people with a ra nge of general hospital medical and surgical conditions with Australian Bur eau of Statistics (ABS) community data. Method: 400 randomly selected patients aged 65 and over completed the SF-36 survey within 48 hours of admission to Manly Hospital and within 24 hours of discharge. These patients were followed up three months post-discharge. Results: Functional status of the hospital sample differed from the ABS dat a. Approximately half of the 8 hospital SF-36 mean scores were significantl y lower than the Australian norms for women and men on admission and discha rge. However, by the three month follow-up, the majority of these differenc es disappeared, except for women aged 75 and over. Conclusions: This study describes differences in the SF-36 data at three po ints in time surrounding an acute hospital episode. The apparent difference s in SF-36 scores at admission, discharge and 3 months post-discharge, with the lowest scores occurring at discharge has implications for planning pos t-hospital services for the elderly.