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Assessing Measurement Properties of Two Single-item General Health Measures

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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.

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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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Correspondence to Karen B. DeSalvo.

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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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