Abstract
Background and Objective: This study assesses the extent to which the RAND-36/SF-36 items measure physical and mental health (PH and MH), as implied by existing summary scoring systems. Methods: A total of 1,714 heterogeneous cancer and HIV/AIDS patients were recruited from five institutions. Of these, 56% were women; 81% Caucasians; and about 10% were from each of the major cancer types and HIV/AIDS. Results: Analyses of the SF-36 confirmed the two dimensions of health namely physical and mental. However, item fit statistics and residual factor analysis revealed that some items intended to represent the PH dimension fit better with the MH dimension. Conclusion: This paper demonstrated the value of Rasch residual factor analysis for understanding and enhancing interpretation of health.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 68-72 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Journal of Clinical Epidemiology |
| Volume | 60 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 2007 |
Funding
This study was supported by the National Cancer Institute (R01CA60068). Ron D. Hays, Ph.D., was supported in part by the UCLA/DREW Project EXPORT, National Institutes of Health, National Center on Minority Health & Health Disparities, (P20-MD00148-01) and the UCLA Center for Health Improvement in Minority Elders/Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Aging, (AG-02-004).
Keywords
- Cancer
- HIV/AIDS
- Physical and mental health
- RAND-36
- Rasch measurement model
- Rasch residual factor analysis
- SF-36
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Epidemiology
