IS THE SF-36 HEALTH SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE SUITABLE AS A SELF-REPORT MEASURE OF THE HEALTH-STATUS OF OLDER ADULTS WITH PARKINSONS-DISEASE

An amended version of the Short Form 36 health survey questionnaire (S F-36), which has been suggested as being more suitable for self-comple tion in older adults, was evaluated among a group of elderly subjects with Parkinson's disease (PD). In the subjects who were able to fully complete the modified SF-36 unaided, the severity of PD was broadly re flected by low reported levels of functioning and well-being with this measure. However, the modified questionnaire still did not overcome t he problem of missing responses from elderly subjects. A total of 24% of respondents missed one or more of the 36 statements and 80% of miss ing responses were concentrated in the three statements which had been modified. The SF-36 in its original form would need to be combined wi th a disease-specific measure to adequately evaluate the health status of older adults with PD.