Abstract
Background: Multi-item health status measures can be lengthy, expensive, and burdensome to collect. Single-item measures may be an alternative. We compared measurement properties of two single-item, general self-rated health (GSRH) questions to assess how well they captured information in a validated, multi-item instrument. Methods: We administered a general health survey (SF-12V) that included “standard” and “comparative” forms of a GSRH. We repeated the survey two weeks later to the same 75 medically stable outpatients to test for GSRH reproducibility, reliability, and validity using SF-12V Physical Functioning and Emotional Health subscales as a reference. Results: At each survey administration, the two GSRH questions demonstrated good alternate forms reliability (first administration: r=0.74, p<0.001; second administration: r=0.74, p<0.001) and good reproducibility (“standard”: ICC 0.69; “comparative”: ICC 0.85). Both GSRH items correlated with physical functioning (“standard”: r=0.66; “comparative”: r=0.56) and emotional health measures (“standard”: r=0.65; “comparative”: r=0.59). Mean subscale measures associated with responses in each GSRH category were significantly different (ANOVA, p<0.001), indicating strong discriminant scale performance. Conclusions: Our single-item, GSRH questions demonstrated good reproducibility, reliability, and strong concurrent and discriminant scale performance with an established health status measure.
Abbreviations
- ANOVA:
-
Analysis of Variance
- EH:
-
Emotional Health
- GSRH:
-
General Self-Rated Health
- ICC:
-
Intraclass Coefficient
- MOS:
-
Medical Outcomes Study
- PF:
-
Physical Functioning
- SD:
-
Standard Deviation
- SF-12V:
-
Short Form-12 Veterans
- U.S.:
-
United States
- VA:
-
Veterans Affairs
- VAMC:
-
New Orleans Veterans Affairs Medical Center
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DeSalvo, K.B., Fisher, W.P., Tran, K. et al. Assessing Measurement Properties of Two Single-item General Health Measures. Qual Life Res 15, 191–201 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-005-0887-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-005-0887-2