Evaluation on SF-36 to assess quality of life of patients with pulmonary tubercolosis

  Objective   To evaluate the reliability, validity and sensitivity of Chinese version SF-36 to assess the quality of life of PTB patients.

  Methods   Subjects were interviewed by using Chinese version of SF-36. Validity of the scores was tested by factor analysis and reliability coefficients were estimated by Cronchbach's a with 0.7 as a standard. Sensitivity was evaluated by comparison of PTB cases and controls.

  Results   Scores of SF-36 in both groups were valid(The patterns of correlations between 8 scales of SF-36 and rotated two factors supported it)with reliabilit y coefficients as estimated by Cronchbach's a above 0.7. Scores of SF-36 in both groups had high sensitivity(all scales of TB patients were lower than that of the control).

  Conclusion   Chinese version of SF-36 was a valid and reliable tool for assessment of quality of life, and cultural diversity might require slight modifications of SF-36. There was a need of large scale general health survey to produce normative data for Chinese population.